Living on the line

A few weeks ago I slipped over to a sister congregation on a Wednesday evening that we did not have service at my home church. A minister/evangelist was speaking there that I have come to appreciate and love very much. He used in his message an illustration I have seen many times by many speakers, but it is always sobering to me. Several of my previous pastors have done this, including my dear pastor, Kerry. This is just the most recent time.

He stretched a string across the front of the sanctuary. Then with a marker marked a line on the string. While it couldn't be seen by most of the audience because it was so small, the line had an edge on both sides. If the string represented timelessness, or eternity, from never beginning past on the left to never ending future on the right (a very European convention, designating left as beginning and right as future on a time line), the left edge of the mark could represent our birth. And of course the right edge would represent our death.

With this simple illustration we are capable of formulating in a small way how insignificant is our time in this life.

But from that point, it gets deep if you will stay with the thought.

This string was perhaps 20 or 30 feet in length. Actually way too short to represent eternity. And even a line from a fine marker at perhaps 1/32 of an inch way too wide to accurately represent our time in relation to eternity. The ratio there would be something akin to 11,520 to 1. If we take three score years as a nominal life span, that would make eternity only 806,400 years long.

So with the understanding that this illustration ratio already limited by physical space available, we can almost have a brain freeze trying to get our minds around the amazingly short time we live on earth compared to eternity.

Why am I belaboring this point? Because we get so attached to this life and what we obtain and achieve that we often leave little love, time, resources and efforts for things that will last for eternity. And I wonder why? No wonder the Bible says in Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange FOR HIS SOUL?

And to bring this to where my mind has been churning a while. What things are worth getting so worked up over in this life? Is what just happened so important that I am about to pop a cork? Go ballistic? Say something mean or ugly?

How important is it in light of eternity? Trust me. I had to examine myself long before I was able to put it into words here.