James 4:13-15: Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”
Imagine that you’re currently a very wealthy person. All of your relatives and friends know you’re a billionaire. (In Deuteronomy 8 the Lord told us that He’s the one who has given you the power to get wealth in order to establish His covenant.) One day the Lord comes to you and asks for a penny. Instead of giving Him the penny, you explain to Him that it will take some time for you to decide whether you will give it to Him. In order to get your head clear, so you can make a wise and profitable decision, you hop aboard your private jet and whisk away to a secluded villa on an island you purchased.
While you’re there being lavished with all of the comforts that money can offer, you begin to consider what has been asked of you by the Lord. After all, your education and experience in the financial world has taught you not to make an unwise investment. Time passes quickly. You retreat to your library and begin to pour through books on investing, seeking wisdom from famous entrepreneurs about this strange request. When you have exhausted all resources that are available to you, your heart still has not found the answer needed in order to respond to the Lord.
Finally, after being held up on your island for months on end, you remember hearing of someone else that had become successful in the financial world. You board your jet again and excitement begins to fill your heart. You anticipate finding your answer in another’s success. While in the air on the way to the meeting, you begin to imagine how you will explain such an odd investment to this person of great prominence and affluence. The moment you’ve been waiting for has arrived, and you find yourself in the palatial office of this corporate executive. Together, you sit down at “the round table,” and you begin to share this strange petition from the Lord. However, after hours of deliberation and thought provoking debate, you walk away from the meeting even more baffled than before. In bewilderment, you tell your driver to follow you as you walk to the park to contemplate the debate in your own heart.
You enter the park and find a seat. The sun has disappeared and the moon begins to shine its light on your face. After sitting there for hours looking up at the stars, you begin to sense that someone is beside you on the bench. You turn to see who has invaded your personal space and realize that the Lord has returned for your answer. Unfortunately, after all of your searching and researching, you still don’t know how to answer the Lord. As you begin to explain to Him that you need more time to further examine your options, He places His fingers over your lips.
The Lord tells you that He has not come for the penny. He has come to let you know that your days on earth have come to an end. It is at that very moment you realize just how much time you have wasted trying to determine if giving a penny to the Lord was a wise investment. Now the billions that you once possessed will go to another.
It seems foolish to think that someone would be so selfish as to deliberate so long about such a trivial request. What is the length of this life in comparison to eternity or eternal life? There is nothing on this earth that we can use to compare the time that we have on earth to an eternity (infinite time). A penny versus a billion dollars doesn’t even begin to come close. What are you doing with the life God has given you? Are you living it for Him, or are you spending it in search of the way to best live it? —submitted by Asa Dockery, US
