77 years. That's all. [James 4:13-15]

Jas 4:13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit."
Jas 4:14 You don't even know what tomorrow will bring--what your life will be! For you are a bit of smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes.
Jas 4:15 Instead, you should say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."

What is eternity? According to Dictionary.com, eternity is an infinite time; a period without beginning or end. What is life? Again, according to Dictionary. Com, life is our period of existence. In other words, our time alive on this earth. So, what is the average time a human gets to spend in “life” on earth. The latest numbers suggest about 77 years. 77 years of life on planet earth. How long did we say eternity was? 100 years? No. 1,000 years? No. 10,000 years?! Nope. Eternity can not be measured on a time scale. We can not even wrap our minds around the vastness of it. So, lets take a look at this verse in James:

We like to do, what we like to do, right? We make plans for next weekend, next month, next year and in some cases, even many years down the road. Next weekend I am going to King’s Island; next month I am going to buy a new car; next year I am going on vacation to Florida; and when I am old and grey, I am going to retire and live the dream. Sound somewhat familiar? We all do it. We make plans for what we can see in our “immediate” future. Wait a minute. I thought we were only around here for about 77 years? Right? Isn’t our eternity a little bit longer than that? Actually, a lot longer than that?

James tells us that we have no idea what tomorrow is going to bring or what we are going to do! It is up to God and God alone. We need to shift our focus from making this 77 (on average) year existence, not about the next big thing we can do. We need to focus on what God wants us to do. This life is just preparation for eternity. We can spend our time on earth trying to make it best for “me” or we can allow God to direct us and live for Him. When we choose option two we will be rewarded by God. Maybe not on earth, but definitely in eternity. I don’t know about you, but I would rather have and eternity of living for God and being blessed by Him, that living 77 years for myself and not pleasing God.

Think of if this way, as James says, our existence is comparable to a bit of smoke. It is there and then it is gone. So, what are we going to do?

Aaron