Burn Out

Job 7:7a "Remember that my life is a breath" ESV

 

As Job was in anguish he talked about how short his days were. I am not sure that he was saying that time was going fast. In fact, I would think that his waking hours would seem to drag as he was in so much pain. He wanted to sleep, he wanted the comfort of his bed so that he could avoid what he was feeling, but he did not even get a good night's rest as he would toss and turn on his bed. I think that what he was admitting to was that this difficulty that he was going through reminded him of the fact that all of the stuff that he may have lived for in the past was nothing, now that it was taken from him. In fact, in light of eternity, his life was nothing. It was just like a breath…just like the wind which blows quickly and is gone. There but short. There but temporary.

 

Pain can do that. It can bring us down to the reality that life is short. David said that a normal life span is seventy years and eighty if you are fortunate. "The years of our life are seventy or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away." Ps 90:10 As I approach those years, I see what Job is talking about. I see what David is talking about. Life is short. Every year goes faster. Every day flies by. The question that I have to ask myself is: "What am I doing with the time that God has given me?" Do I waste it on my iPad? (ouch) Do I frit it away in front of the TV? Do I play video games that mean nothing? I wonder what believers could do if we truly remembered that our lives are but a breath.

 

I spoke to a friend yesterday who admitted that as he was getting older he was getting lazier. He hated it. He said that he wanted to work hard for the kingdom. Why? Our life is but a breath.

 

So what should my heart be like? How should I live? I think it is summed up in a poem (or hymn) by Bessie Hatcher. The chorus is: "Let me burn out for Thee, dear Lord,
Burn and wear out for Thee. Don't let me rust, or my life be a failure, my God to Thee.
Use me and all I have, dear Lord, and get me so close to Thee that I feel the throb of the great heart of God, until I burn out for Thee."

 

Life is short…it is a breath. What am I doing with my time? Burn out.