Beyond Your Expiration Date

When my feeble life is o’er,
  Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o’er
  To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.

Just a Closer Walk with Thee
By: Anonymous

Listen as you read.  This is a really nice gospel instrumental version.

We turn our attention back to Just a Closer Walk with Thee and consider the implications of doing so when we come to the end of our lives.  When you can see the end clearly, it helps you determine which steps to take, and tuning our hearts to the reality of eternity is a part of that exercise.  This week let’s spend some time thinking about what it will be like to live beyond time.  Let’s tune our hearts.

Feeble

Now there’s a word not in common use today.  The phrase that comes to mind for me when I think of feeble is from another great hymn, “O Worship the King”. It describes us this way, “Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail.”

The older I get the more I understand the truth of that poetic expression.  We are made of dust, and it is impossible to escape that reality.  Existing simultaneously with it is another reality expressed in the wisdom of Solomon.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.  Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV

Though we are increasingly mindful of our mortality, even it causes us to be more helpful of our eternal state.  God is there from the beginning to the end.  We were not there at the beginning, but will be at the end.

Our advancing years reveal the frailty of our physical bodies.  We get stronger for a time, then begin the long, slow descent to our eventual demise.

How are you mindful of that today?  Are you trusting Jesus in spite of that limitation, and maybe even mores because of it?  Thank Jesus for His strength, made perfect in your weakness.

Over

We will come to our end.  That is well established.  There is no good argument against this encroaching reality.

There is a plot in the ground waiting for each of us, unless of course we choose cremation instead, but you get the point.  I routinely face this as I have the privilege of serving families at the funerals and memorials for their departed loved ones, but it came painfully close this spring when my father died.

I had watched his painful decline over the last couple of years in particular as his body became increasingly feeble, no longer able to do the things he had previously.  Then on a day back in March I heard what was still the somewhat surprising news that he had taken a turn for the worse and within a short period of time had come to his end.  Though I could see it approaching, his final demise was still difficult to fathom, only comforted by the confidence I have that He is with the Lord.

He was gone from this life.  His journey here was over.  Never more was this more clear than at the graveside when we said our final goodbyes, for now.  There in the cemetery it is clear what eventually happens to us all, which we are inclined to try to ignore.

If your life to be over today, are you prepared?  Do you have a peace about what is in store for you beyond the grave?  Does that confidence rest in Jesus?  If so, you can face the end of your time here assured of what is to come.  Thank Jesus for the confidence.

Time

As we tune our hearts against the impeding reality of the the passing of time, are you conscious that as each second ticks away you are nearing your final ones. It is hard for us to imagine it, but we all have expiration dates.  They are not printed on a label somewhere, but that makes them no less definite.

It is wise to embrace this truth.  One of the ways we acquire such wisdom is actually in the numbering of our days, or as the old adage puts it, to acknowledge our days are numbered.  Not only is there an incredible order in that, but an awareness that we can then translate into the decisions we make.  For some people act as though they will live forever, when all of us know that is not the case.

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.  Psalm 90:12 ESV

Though it is wise to number your days, the promised wisdom actually emerges from doing so.  To put it another way, wisdom is not in counting the grains of sand, but acquired by the discipline of doing so.  When we are willing to face our mortality, only then are we truly ready to embrace the promise of immortality which our walk with Jesus affords.

No More

Time has run out.  Strange to think of it in the past tense?  That will be true of each of us at some point.  We will look back at a life lived, like the last grains of sand having passed through the hourglass.

We can do so with hope.  Now, simply hope.  Then, hope fulfilled.  We can approach the end of our feeble lives, the end of time as we know it, with peace.  At rest with our frailty and our mortality.

Do you have the hope, that peace, that rest?  You can.  Then the confidence that Jesus will guide you safely to heavenly shores will flood your soul.  More on that in our Thursday Thoughts.  

I hope you will come back and tune with us again, but for today make certain to enjoy the resources below which are companions to these Tunings.

Honest Tuning!

Jesus, make me mindful of how feeble this life is so I may escape the temptation to put my hope it in.  Instead, teach me to number my days, and gain wisdom from resting in You.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

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Subscribers enjoy this video! Everyone else, the transcript below.

Video 7.3 Transcript

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

When my feeble life is o’er,
  Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o’er
  To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.

We live our lives at times with little awareness internal or otherwise that this life is but a vapor.  We become increasingly aware as we grow older how frial our lives are becoming. Have you determined to trust God through all your days, whether many or few?

There are two realities of time in play here.  First, our time is running out, for we are mortal, we each have an expiration date.  Second, it is difficult to imagine what it will be like to be beyond time, living eternally.  Ask Jesus for an eternal perspective.

If Jesus answers our prayer and teaches us how to walk closely with Him, it will be much easier for us to trust Him with the last leg of our journey here, even as the rest commences.  Ask the Holy Spirit to continue to teach you to trust His gentle leading in these days.

That way, we those moments come for you to step beyond time and into eternity it will be as peaceful as slowly coming to rest on the calm shores of a placid lake.  That is what awaits all those who walk closely with Jesus. Determine to walk one step behind Him today.

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Feeble Life – https://pixabay.com/photos/born-died-life-lifespan-cradle-1264699/
Over – https://pixabay.com/photos/cemetery-grave-graves-tombstone-989920/
Sands of Time – https://pixabay.com/photos/pocket-watch-time-of-sand-time-3156771/
No More – https://pixabay.com/photos/time-clock-hourglass-hour-1817726/