Another Year Bites The Dust

Another Year Bites the Dust

Be careful how you life. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity.

Ephesians 5:15-16

Believe it or not, there’s a website that allows you to enter your birth date and gender so that you can discover how much time you have left. Yikes! Known as the “Death Clock,” it will instantly calculate the day you would die according to projections for the average life span. If you were born on March 16, 1969, and are male, it says you’ll have until December 26, 2042, based on an average life span. It’ll also tell you that this is just 1.4 billion seconds away. Kind of crazy, don’t you think? The site’s slogan is “The Internet’s friendly reminder that life is slipping away.”

It doesn’t get much more macabre than that, but it’s right. Time is slipping away. And as the year is coming to a close in this last month, there’s nothing like a startling in-your-face reminder like this website to make you take notice of time’s quick passage. And the older you get, the more you notice how fleeting it is. Each year seems to move more quickly than the last. When we were children, time sometimes felt like it was standing still, didn’t it? But no longer.

It may not be the most pleasant of thoughts, but an occasional reminder that our time on this planet is finite can awaken our appreciation for each and every moment we have. After all, nothing you can do will stop the march of time, but you can do plenty to make sure the time you have left is not wasted. You can begin by paying attention to what makes your time on this earth so valuable. And, of course, your relationships are at the top of the list. You may enjoy your home, your vacations, your work, or any other good fortunes, but everyone agrees that it is your relationships that give life meaning and fulfillment—especially your relationship with your soul mate.

So, as morbid as it might first seem, consider the days that you are likely to have left in this earthly life. Give serious thought to how you want to spend the days that stretch before you. Do you really have time to fuss and fight? Do you want to spend your time bellyaching and moaning? Do you want to give your very best at the office and only have what’s left over at home? Of course not. Nobody does.

We’re all bound to have our share of conflict and busyness, but why let negativity steal the precious moments you have together? Instead, consider how you can curb whatever it is that tends to take time away from what you want most in your relationship and in this life you share together. Don’t allow another year to bite the dust without squeezing the very life out of it.

The years shall run like rabbits.

—W. H. Auden