Life can change in an instant. Change we never saw coming can happen today. That change can be delightful, or that change can be devastating. Nothing here is forever, and nothing we have today is guaranteed for tomorrow.

Here in the US, if you’re above the age of 25, you no doubt remember the exact events of this day in 2001. You remember where you were, what you were doing and who you were with in the morning hours of 9/11. Fear, followed by compassion, coursed through our veins as time stood still and we watched the 2nd plane crash into the towers, then the tower fell.

I remember that morning in my little duplex near Dallas, TX. I remember holding my 2 year old little boy waiting for Daddy to come back home from a run. Just like you, the memories of that day will be forever etched in my mind.

19 years ago right now, 2,977 people were waking up to their final day of life. Some kissed their loved ones goodbye and hopped on a plane. Some dropped their kids off at school and went to work. Some showed up for their shift assuming it might be a quiet day in New York City.

And in an instant it all changed.

Understand, the day comes for all of us. None of us are getting out of this alive, not a single one. If there’s one thing we all share in common, it’s that we’re all dying.

Why don’t we live with this awareness? Why don’t we value the day on that level? Why do we allow nonsense to consume the gift of a day of life when those days are numbered and less and less each time we wake up?

Ecclesiastes 3 tells us “There is a time for everything, and a season for ever activity under the heaves: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance …”

Did you wake up to something worth smiling over? Then girl, get to smiling! Don’t save that joy up for another day, you may be saving it for a day that never comes. Do you feel like dancing today … then dance. The day will come when dancing will be replaced with pacing the floors.

This is the cycle of life. It comes and it goes. Wherever you are, and whatever you have, savor it for all it is.

Today, there are women praying the embryo survived the transplant. At the same time there are women praying they’re not pregnant. At nearly 45, I more so identify with the later, but there was a day I could only dream of that positive pregnancy test.

There are families welcoming new life today, and families saying final farewells as life comes to an end. I’ve experienced both recently.

Some will receive great news today and be elated, while others will be devastated with the unfolding of today.

And in the midst of all of this God tells us DO NOT FEAR. When we fear what may happen, we miss what is happening. When we dwell on what is to come, we trade what is already here.

Here’s what we know … life is short … heaven is forever.

Because life is short and can change in an instant, we can treasure it as it should be treasured. We can savor what we have now because we are fully aware of it’s brevity.

This won’t last forever honey.

This joy, this pain.
This success, this struggle.
This high, this low.
This happiness, this worry.

Wherever you find yourself today, I’m grateful you’re here. You’re alive. You’re breathing in the breath of your creator, you’re filled with purpose, and today you are walking this Earth with me for a reason. And we won’t always be.

James 4:14 “You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

Everything and everyone we have here is temporary. It should be treated with tremendous care. Every word we speak and every thing we do could be the very thing that outlives us.

Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

6,940 days of life have passed since that moment we all remember watching the planes and the towers. We have been given 6,940 more days of life than those 2,977 were given.

Pause and ask, have you been faithful with those days received that others did not? Have you done all you can do with your days? How many of those have been wasted? How many of those have counted for little? Oh Lord, teach us to live well in our days. Help us to get better.

What would living well TODAY look like for you? What would it look like to truly make THIS DAY count?

Think about that. Live like that.

Life can, and does, change in an instant. Our lives are brief and just a moment in time compared to eternity. Life is short … heaven is forever. Live accordingly.