YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. This truth is as welcome as a hard slap in the face. Isn’t it fascinating how offensive this fact is? No man escapes death. Yet, every man spends the majority of his life pretending he will live forever. Let’s rip off the band-aid: no matter how much you lie to yourself, one day—any day—you will be maggot food.

A poor man could read a thousand books about money, and remain poor. An oncologist could see hundreds of smokers a week, and remain a smoker. How is this possible?

Information does not produce transformation.

It is the belief in the information that transforms. Jesus explained this to His disciples, “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding.” Every man is well-informed about his mortality, yet how many men live like they are dying? If we embraced death, we’re likely to do more “Carpe Diem” and a lot less doom scrolling.

Would the average American man spend 2.8 hours a day watching TV if he actually believed he could die tomorrow? Would you and I avoid playing with our children if we believed that we’d get hit by a bus on the way to work?

If you knew you only had 6 months left, would you waste any of that time on meaningless things? Would you sleep in, or wake up early? Would you stay at that dead-end job or would you start a business? Would you be apathetic to injustice and tyranny, or would you speak up?

I’ve been meditating on Ephesians 5:15-16 for years. It says, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time [making the most of every opportunity], because the days are evil.” 

This is a call to accountability for how time is managed. A warning to “check yourself before you wreck yourself.” We are called to grab hold of the moment, make wise decisions, and take wise action because the world around us is filled with death traps as our culture grows darker. 

In Psalm 90, Moses prayed, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” This means living with a consciousness of the brevity of our lives activates wisdom. It is wise for us to diligently focus on our core objectives and values—stewarding time before God.

While it is clear that our lives are not very long in the grand scheme of things, living a “long” life is all in how you frame it.

According to Seneca, life is not short, but long, “if you know how to use it.” In his famous essay “On the Shortness of Life,” the ancient philosopher highlighted the irony of the value we place on replaceable resources like possessions or money while neglecting to value our most irreplaceable resource, time. 

“Even if all the bright intellects who ever lived were to agree to ponder this one theme, they would never sufficiently express their surprise at this fog in the human mind.” He said, “People are frugal in guarding their personal property, but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.” 

Seneca stated, “It is the sign of a great man, and one who is above human error, not to allow his time to be frittered away: he has the longest possible life simply because whatever time was available he devoted entirely to himself. None of it lay fallow and neglected, none of it under another’s control; for being an extremely thrifty guardian of his time he never found anything for which it was worth exchanging.”

If we simply begin to view our time as the most valuable resource we’ve been given, it will become increasingly more difficult to “spend” it on futile things. We will be more likely to see our time as an investment that requires a wise strategy before being traded–as if it were a portion of our life savings.

The proper use of time honors the God who gave it to you, and it is also a way of loving and valuing yourself. Psychologist M. Scott Peck wrote a profound observation, “Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”

I decided last year, that I am going to be intentional about living to be 100 years old. This means that I have to make my decisions over the next 58 years with longevity in mind. To remind me of this goal, I have a large poster on my wall with 5200 outlined circles on it (like multiple choice). Each of the circles represents a week of my projected 100-year life. Each week, I fill in the circle. This gives me a visual perspective of my lifespan as it expires one week at a time. It sounds morbid, but I find it highly motivating.  

Benjamin Franklin said, “Lost time is never found again.” So take ownership of the precious gift of time, make the most of it, and live a full and rewarding life.