You have a balance. What’s remaining of your life. The number of days you have left to live.

We all have one, this unknown balance. A number we can’t see, but everyday is another one down.

What we can see are the ones we have already spent. We can look back and count the days that turned into years and do nothing about them now. Now those days are spent. Proudly or poorly, either way, they’re done.

I had the honor of sitting with my Daddy at the end of the Summer and recounting his life. He shared with me his greatest days and proudest investments of time. And he told me about the part of his life he spent poorly. The investment he made in a job where he was miserable and he could never get that time back. What awaited him was an amazing and successful business he would build on his own, but before then he was afraid to take the leap and spent years working for an unfair man in a dead end job. But he couldn’t see what was ahead, and looking back he realized that part of his life was spent poorly.

How are you spending your life?

Can you look back and see times spent poorly?
Will you look back on today, right now this season you’re in, and see it was wasted? Or will you be proud of your investment of time and how you spent it?

You have a balance of your days allotted, and every day you’re spending one, no matter what you do. You can’t save up this day and hold it’s availability for another day. No, hour by hour it’s being spent. Time is running right through your fingers and you can’t hold it back. All you can do is spend it better.

Our prayer today is, Father, show me how to spend this life.

Show me how to see this treasure for what it is. The value of a day. The preciousness of a moment. The speed of it all.

Life goes by so fast, and the older we get, the faster it goes. Do you understand why time seems to go faster and faster? It’s not a phenomenon only you experience, we all do. It’s because the older you get, the more you have in your spent column. When you compare today to what you’ve already spent, today gets smaller and smaller when the spent column grows longer. I’ve lived 44 years. When compare this one year to those I have already lived, it goes fast because I so much to compare it to. When I was 22, there was half the amount to compare a year to, so it went about half as fast.

Life is NOT going to slow down for you. It only goes faster from here. You imagine you may have 20, 30, 40 good years of life left and you estimate their speed at your current pace, but you’re wrong. They will go by faster. Faster and faster and faster.

Just like money used to go further than it does today, a day used to go further as well. We have less and less time with an ever shrinking balance.

Show me how to spend this life.

David Dunn sings these lyrics:

All I have is what you gave
Watching seconds turn to days
I was made for more than just to watch it fly
A few more turns around the sun
Could be hundreds could be one
Show me how to spend the treasure of my time
Show me how to spend a life

We get one of these. One life. We have been spending it whether intentionally or not. There’s no Dave Ramsey savings plan here. You can’t save up your life. You can only spend it well.

How many of us are saving up life? Saving up for that special occasion where we will light the candles and break out the fancy dishes. Saving up for some day in the future when we will wear the expensive perfume and try those fake lashes. Living day after day as our favorite fancy panties go unworn.

I grew up with a box of dishes that followed us to every new house Daddy built for us. This box was unopened. These dishes were being saved for a special occasion, and literally untouched. Until curious me started sneaking into the cabinets, opening the box and daring to touch them.

My mama had collected points at the local grocery store for years to earn these dishes. Each piece would be safely placed in the box and saved. I grew up never using the dishes, only dreaming of them. One day about 5 years ago my Mama mentioned she was getting rid of the coveted box of dishes and asked if I might want them. Every day since then, those fancy dishes have been used. Many broken and chipped now because of the every day use, but they have been used, loved and thoroughly enjoyed.

Mama and Daddy came to my house shortly after giving me the dishes and to her surprise I had packed those treasures into our picnic basket and served fried chicken by the river on them. They never looked better than on that red picnic table!

Why do we save things for a special day, forgetting TODAY is special! Today is priceless. Today is worthy of lighting the candles and wearing our best perfume … both of which have been happening in my house since 6 am this morning.

Why do we forget all the days of our lives have brought us precisely to THIS DAY. How absolutely amazing. How totally phenomenal this day must be. NOW LIVE IT AS SUCH.

You are spending this day, intentionally or not. What you do with it can never be taken back, and what you fail to do with it can’t be saved for another day.

TODAY IS A STAND ALONE GIFT BEING OFFERED. Seize it or not, it will pass.

James 4:14 says “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Like literally, we have no idea. I think we all realize that more than ever now. BUT WE HAVE TODAY. WE HAVE TODAY TO LIVE. WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN THIS DAY TO SPEND … Oh, may we spend it well.

Don’t let me waste it.

How do we waste a day of life? We worry and we fret. That’s complete waste. Did you know 85% of the things we worry about never even happen?!!! And did you know 100% of the time you worry is completely wasted. Not a single thing is improved by your worry. All you do is waste the gift you have been given.

Don’t let me lose it.

How do we lose a day of life? We miss the offerings of today. We pass by the beauty without recognizing it. We misplace our priorities and miss what’s truly important. What we have today is valuable, don’t let it fall right out of your pocket like a $20 bill. Protect today. Handle it with care. Spend it well.

Don’t let me steal it for myself.

Everything we have has been given to us to use and to share. The truly valuable investments here are the ones that outlive us. The spending of today that goes beyond the boundaries of our lives and touches another life. Each of us are given that opportunity today. The opportunity to stop stealing our life and hoarding it for ourselves, but instead give it freely to others.

Jesus showed us how to do that. He showed us how to love with arms wide open. He showed us how to go beyond the boundaries, overlook differences and live openly and freely. He showed us how to trust the father and not worry about tomorrow. He showed us how to keep life simple and intentional. He showed us how to look at people, listen to people, and love recklessly.

When we seek to know how we should spend our life, we look no further than Jesus. He is our example.

Remember the popular bracelets of the 90’s WWJD. What would Jesus do?

Today, in my life, in my home with my family and my reality … what would Jesus do? How would he spend this day? I just want to do a little more of that. And if I do, less will be wasted.