Moses wrote in the Psalms, “The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10). Moses himself lived longer than this. Still, he was the exception, not the rule in his day. Life had come to be the same in duration as it is with us. 

James 4:13-15 says “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 

In all its struggles, life is not one smooth path from birth to death. There are mountains and valleys, tragedies and joys, great times and really bad times. Life may be short for some and longer for others. While Moses speaks about the length of days, James speaks about the shortness of days. And not everyone’s life is the same.

From our first breath to our final moment, life is a winding path of twists and turns that can either push us closer to God, or further away from Him. Jesus tells us that the choice is ours, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13, 14).

Christians must be prepared for the changes that will inevitably come in this life, but staying on the right road toward heaven will be worth it.

By: Justin Odom