A Marathon with an Undetermined Finish Line

You have probably heard someone describe life as “not a sprint, but a marathon.” This is true on many levels, not the least of which being that a 100-meter or 200-meter sprint is over quickly after it’s started, while a marathon is a 26.2-mile endurance contest that takes even the best runners several hours to finish.

 

But the sprint/marathon comparison is an apt one also because starting is relatively easy, whether it’s an athletic competition, a career, a marriage, or any other endeavor in this experience of everyday living. Arriving at the finish line successfully, however, is a much greater challenge.

A marathon, requires perseverance, determination, and willingness to face adversity, even pain. When you participate a marathon, you’re in it, literally, for the long run.

 

There is one area in which the marathon metaphor for life breaks down. Participants in a marathon race know the distance is exactly 26.2 miles. And as competitors near the end of the race, the finish line becomes visible. The end’s in sight. In the “marathon of life,” however, the distance is uncertain. It’s different for us all. And we never know where the finish line is until the moment we get there.

 

How would you like to enter a race that lacked a definitive finish line? At the very least, it would be disconcerting because you could never know when it was over, right? As difficult as it is to admit, that’s exactly what our lives are like. 

 

We wake up each morning and start preparing for the opportunities and challenges of the new day. Over the course of the day, we might make plans for tomorrow, next week, next month or even next year. But rarely do we pause to consider there’s a finish line out there somewhere, unseen but real just the same. I suppose if we dwelt on that too much, we’d be afraid to get out of bed in the first place. 

 

For some folks, their “marathon” continues for many years. We celebrate those who reach the 100-year mark. We even have a name for them: centenarians. On average, people in the Western world live well beyond 70 years, and lots of them pass the 80-year mark and continue going strong. The length of their “marathons” is a very long distance from their moment of birth.

 

At the same time, we know of people – including friends and loved ones – whose lives were cut way too short, at least in our estimation. Infants, children, teenagers, young adults barely out of college, just getting started with their careers, marriages and families. Their “marathon” ended abruptly. The finish line came way too soon. 

 

When I started preparing to write this, I didn’t have any specific individuals in mind. Then came the tragic news about Dwayne Haskins, the record-setting quarterback at Ohio State. He had been working for an opportunity to start at quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL, but died when he was struck by a truck in Florida – just a few weeks shy of his 25^th birthday.

 

Being a longtime OSU fan, I took particular note. Besides the loss for his family and every member of “Buckeye Nation,” Haskins’ unexpected passing served as a somber reminder that we never know when we’ll reach the end of our personal “marathon.”

 

Why is this important? Why invest time and energy on unsettling thoughts about the relative brevity of life? Why not do just as the ancient Israelites said, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” (Isaiah 22:13), rather than worry about something we can’t control?  

 

I’d suggest it’s because even though we can’t know our quantity of life – the number of years allotted for us – we can work to determine the quality of our lives. 

Some translations of Ephesians 5:16 strongly exhort us about, “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” This isn’t saying that time itself is evil, but days pass very quickly, and once they’re gone, opportunities they offered may be lost forever. That’s why the preceding verse cautions, “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise.”

 

Jesus told a story called “the parable of the rich fool” which illustrates this. He said, “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy, drink and be merry.’”

 

But Jesus concluded this parable with a grim punchline: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-20).

 

He offered a similar perspective during His most famous sermon,” warning, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

So, as we continue along life’s marathon, with no guarantee for how long – when the “finish line” will suddenly appear – we have a decision to make. We can “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” as 1 Corinthians 15:32 also states, or we can strive to do as Jesus taught, to store up treasures for ourselves in heaven – and be rich toward God. Which will you choose? 

Life – It’s Really Just the Tip of the Drumstick

The other day at my drum lesson, I had a bit of an epiphany (not to be confused with tympani). My teacher, who like me had met AARP membership criteria long ago, and I got into a conversation about the brevity of life and how the majority of our earthly existence is already behind us.  

As we were chatting, I glanced at the tip of one of my drumsticks. The tip is less than one-half inch, while the entire stick is more than 16 inches long. A drummer uses the entire drumstick, of course, but the tip is where the action is. This prompted me to think about the span of one’s life here on earth, compared to eternity. 

 

The average American lives well beyond the age of 70, although we all know of people who passed away much younger. And there are many people living well into their 80’s, 90’s, and some past 100. That seems like a long time, but as a little girl once said, “Eternity – well, that’s like forever!” Yep, a very, very long time.

 

Which begs the question, if our time on earth is equivalent to the tip of a drumstick, while the entire drumstick (and beyond) represents eternity, why are we so focused on just the tip?

 

Skeptics might contend that this life is all there is, there’s nothing after we die. If that’s the case, we might do well to consider the somewhat pessimistic perspective of the author of Ecclesiastes, who wrote, “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 8:15). Eat, drink and be merry, ‘cause tomorrow you may die! 

 

However, the same book’s writer also observed, “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In response to the plaintive question of the old song, “Is that all there is?”, the Bible teaches emphatically, “No, that’s not all there is.”

 

The Scriptures don’t sugarcoat the reality of life. As it says in James 4:14, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away.” The New International translates the word as “mist.” Vapor or mist, neither is anything you can hang onto for long.

 

But rather than telling us to resign ourselves to a relatively short-lived existence, the Bible is filled with passages and promises that essentially tell us, “Quit concentrating on the tip of the drumstick and learn to value the entire stick.”

 

In what’s perhaps the best-known verse of Scripture, John 3:16, we’re told, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This isn’t referring to the fabled fountain of youth that Ponce de Leon searched for, but life that continues long after we take our last breath on planet Earth. 

 

The apostle John expanded on this when he wrote, “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:12-13).

 

Speaking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and Jewish leader, Jesus Christ referred to this when He said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).

 

On another occasion, Jesus assured His followers, “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Another translation terms it “abundant life.” Either way, He was not referencing hefty wallets and investment portfolios, shiny cars and grandiose houses, but life for all of eternity with our Heavenly Father.

 

Writing a final charge to his protégé, Timothy, the apostle Paul clearly understood there’s more to life than what he’d experienced on “terra firma.” With his sights set on what awaited him, Paul declared: 

“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, for which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

 

Even though in Romans 6:13 he wrote about our offering ourselves as “instruments of righteousness,” I don’t think he had drums or even drumsticks in mind. But he might have appreciated that metaphor for pondering this life and the life to come.

 

How about us? Is our concentration fixed totally on this particular moment, tomorrow or next month, or have we given thought to what is, as Paul phrased it, “in store” for us in eternity, beyond the “drum tip” of everyday life?

Today: The Gift That Gives More Than We Imagine

 I don’t know who originated it, but some punster came up with the observation, “Every new day is a gift. That’s why they call it the present.” But when we’re young, and healthy, it’s easy to take each new day for granted. We make plans weeks, months, even years in advance, with utmost confidence those plans will be fully realized.

However, as we get older – especially after encountering health setbacks, or simply the reality that our bodies are aging – we discover tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. This teaches many of us to appreciate the dawn of another day, the chance to arise from a night’s sleep and eagerly face the opportunities and challenges of the next 24 hours.

 

In recent months, two of my friends have undergone open-heart surgery. Now they’re engaged in cardiac rehab programs to help them to resume their active lifestyles. Other friends have confronted various forms of cancer. Then there are coronavirus survivors. Each of these now understands, more clearly than ever, that each new day is truly a gift. We couldn’t earn or deserve it. We just received it.

 

The question becomes, what do we do with that gift? How do we use it? Should we try to squeeze every ounce of sensory experience out of each day? Go skydiving, or hang gliding? Ride the fastest, steepest rollercoaster we can find? Travel to exotic locales? Spend our money on the glitzy “stuff” we’ve seen advertised? “Grab the gusto,” as the old commercial slogan used to tell us?

 

We find two very different perspectives in the Bible. The book of Ecclesiastes, which most scholars believe was written by King Solomon, offers a fairly pessimistic view. For instance, the king admitted:

“I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure…. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11).

 

Bummer! He was the richest man in the world, at least for his time, yet experienced frustration and futility in pursuing any and all tangible things and experiences the world could offer. Solomon discussed this throughout the book, but ultimately arrived at one conclusion: “Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him – for this is his lot” (Ecclesiastes 5:18).

 

In the New Testament, however, we find a more optimistic outlook, one that focuses on eternity rather than this temporary world in which we exist. 

 

Jesus exhorts His followers, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in an steal” (Matthew 6:19). If we stop there, He seems in agreement with Solomon. The things that catch our eye, the earthly treasures we work so hard to acquire, slip away. We don’t see hearses pulling U-Haul trailers.

 

But then Jesus offers an option, explaining there is a way of investing for our long-term future: “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:20-21).

 

We might respond, “This sounds good. But how do we do it?”

 

Jesus gave us a good starting point in responding to the question from a Jewish religious leader, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Without hesitation, He replied, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:36-37).

 

Loving others, God first, and then our “neighbors” – whomever the Lord brings into our lives – is a key to a meaningful, rewarding life and one way to ensure we don’t squander the gift of each new day. Ted DeMoss, whom I had the privilege of working with from 1981 to his passing in 1997, used to say that when all is said and done, only two things will remain: “the Word of God and people.” 

 

Jim Elliot, a missionary who lost his life in 1956 while participating in Operation Auca, attempting to evangelize the Huaorani peoplein Ecuador, made a similar observation: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” He also said, “Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”

 

I hope you woke up this morning fully realizing you had received a true gift – the gift of a new day. So yes, by all means, grab the gusto. Go for it! But in so doing, grab the gusto for God and His people.

Beware of Destination Addiction

When you take a trip, are you a stop-and-smell-the-flowers type, or more like the gotta-get-there, the-sooner-the-better traveler? I’m more the latter. We have a destination, I mentally calculate how long it should take to get there, and we’re on our way. Detours along the route are annoying. If we start the trip with specific stops factored into the itinerary, I’m okay with that. But when trip interruptions are impromptu, I might stop, but I’ll do it grudgingly.

To my detriment, I suppose, it’s all about the destination.

Recently I was reading about another type of destination fixation. The article actually called it “destination addiction,” and involves ephemeral concepts like happiness, or success. It’s “the idea that happiness is in the next place, the next job, or even the next partner. Until you give up the idea that happiness is somewhere else, it will never be where you are.”

Have you ever known someone like that? Have you been someone like that? Are you someone like that now?

I recall seeing a sign years ago that offered simple directions: “You can’t get there from here. You have to go someplace else first.” Too often many of us approach life that way. We’re not happy where we are, so we surmise it’s because happiness just happens to live somewhere else. Maybe it was here for a while, but then it moved. So our solution is to embark on an exhaustive search to find it.

If we don’t leap for joy when it’s time to get up and go to work, instead of trying to determine how to become a better employee, we decide the answer’s in finding a better job. If we’re not enjoying our home the way we once did, we figure there’s no alternative but to move somewhere else. And if our marriage seems to lack the spark it once had, we conclude the answer is to find happiness in someone else. You can’t get there from here, right?

Sadly, the quest for things like happiness and success are like the mirage in the desert. It appears off in the distance, but when you get to where you thought it was, it’s not there.

Repeatedly the Bible speaks to this widespread desire for something else, something better to satisfy our deepest yearnings. It was directly addressed in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife…his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17). God wasn’t intending to be a divine spoilsport; He just understood that no matter where we are or what we have, our sinful nature is to prefer what someone else possesses.

Jesus told a parable about a rich man whose crops were so abundant he lacked space for storing them. So he decided the solution would be to replace his existing barns with bigger ones. Then he’d have plenty of room, no matter how much he could amass. “And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” (Luke 12:13-21).

Contrast that with the apostle Paul, who had one destination in mind and one only. He wrote, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (Philippians 4:11-12).

Those of us living in the 21^st century, in which contentment is regarded almost as a sin while we’re tugged constantly to pursue more or better or different, Paul’s words seem shocking. But it goes back to certainty about his singular destination, one that didn’t waver according to his mood or feelings at a particular moment: “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

We’re all enticed by the “greener grass,” the notion that if we can just get from where we are to what appears more appealing over there, then we will be happy. Then, for sure, we will find love, achieve success, or experience fulfillment.

The only thing is, those already are over “there” are convinced they’d find the same things if they could only be with us over “here.” No wonder we never stop asking, “Are we there yet?”

Carpe Diem! (While It’s Worth Seizing)

Several people I know are fond of using the term carpe diem – “seize the day.” This phrase apparently originated in 23 B.C. in the Odes, a collection of lyric poems written in Latin by the poet Horace. More than 2,000 years later, there’s a lot to be said for “carpe diem.”

In one respect it means, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future.” An old beer commercial referred to this as “grabbing the gusto.” Another way of looking at this aligns with the adage, “You only go around once.” In other words, take advantage of the present, because quickly it will be past. You won’t get a second shot at it.

"Tempus fugit," the Romans used to say: "Time flies."

This sounds simultaneously realistic and self-serving. Terms like “look out for No. 1” and “it’s all about me” too easily fit under the carpe diem umbrella. But when we consider the remainder of Horace’s “carpe diem” declaration, it becomes a bit clearer. He added, “quam minimum credula postero,” which means, “trusting as little as possible in the next day (or, the future).”

Today we would say something like, “when opportunity knocks, for goodness sake, answer the door!” Because tomorrow, most of us have learned to our regret, might be too late.

Interestingly, the Bible speaks much about this. For instance, King Solomon wrote, “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad” (Ecclesiastes 8:15). This, combined with Isaiah 22:13 – “Let us eat and drink…for tomorrow we die!” – have formed the statement, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” While these words originally were written in Hebrew, they clearly concur with Horace’s sentiments in Latin.

The idea of seizing the day has more of an industrious context in Proverbs 20:13 – “Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare.” The book of wisdom also applies this principle to the area of generosity: “Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Come back later; I’ll give it tomorrow’ – when you now have it with you” (Proverbs 3:28).

Carpe diem seems to be a recurring theme in the New Testament as well. During His so-called Sermon on the Mount, Jesus observed, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?... Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” He wasn’t discouraging planning, but was exhorting His hearers to trust God for each day’s provision and not become consumed by the uncertain future, failing to appreciate the here and now in the process.

The apostle Paul also stressed seizing opportunities when they present themselves. “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Ephesians 5:15-16). The days are “evil,” he was saying, not that they are inherently sinful but rather because if we waste time and squander opportunities, the time passes quickly and can’t be retrieved. Unlike money, we can’t “save” time in a chronological bank somewhere.

So in one sense, “carpe diem” could be understood to mean since we only have today, and tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, let’s indulge ourselves as much as possible. In other words, become hedonists. In another sense, however, “seizing the day” can inspire us to become good stewards of the time set before us, not only attending to our own needs and interests, but also looking for opportunities to be of service to others – especially God.

If there were such a thing as a time bank, one approach is to continually make withdrawals from our accounts. The other is to make regular deposits that earn dividends long into the future. As another translation of Ephesians 5:16 states, we can’t conserve time as a commodity, but we can be “redeeming the time.”

Enjoy the moment, to be sure. Have fun and delight in a new day of life. But if you have an opportunity to carry out an act of kindness, do it now. Don’t delay. If there’s an encouraging word you can offer, don't fail to express it now. Don’t procrastinate when it’s within your power to perform good for someone in some way. Tomorrow might be too late.