“LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is.” — Psalm 39:4 (NLT)
Here we are in November — and is it just me, or does it seem like time is speeding up? Weren’t we just in March, welcoming spring? Now the leaves are falling again, and another year is nearly gone. The older I get, it seems the faster the clock ticks. Maybe it’s not time that’s speeding up — maybe it’s us, realizing how fleeting our moments really are.
It seems like yesterday that our oldest grandson, Wyatt, was riding his little electric tractor, pretending he was Pappy, mowing our farm for hours. Wyatt would wear the battery down. Today he’s sixteen, driving a real car. Where has the time gone?
I can recall my running days with friends — racing in 5Ks, laughing in the freezing cold before fitness classes, with icicles hanging from the back of my ponytail. We ran together for ten years, celebrating life and friendship. It seems like yesterday. But seasons change, and time races on.
Although I no longer run those races, I’m still teaching fitness classes five days a week. Each class is an opportunity to challenge my students to run the race for Christ — to strengthen both their spirit and their body as they keep their eyes on Him.
Lately, I’ve noticed more people expressing that they don’t feel like they fit in anywhere. I understand that feeling. This world has never felt quite like home to me either — not because of lack or loneliness, but because something deep inside reminds me: we are only passing through.
1 Peter 2:11 tells us, “Dear friends, I warn you as temporary residents and foreigners to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.” This earth is not our permanent home. Our souls are longing for eternity with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
That truth changes how we see time. We don’t own it — we steward it. Every breath, every sunrise, is borrowed time from God, meant to be used for His glory. Are we spending each day pleasing Him, or ourselves? Are we serving others in love, or wasting our days in complaint and comparison?
Jesus invites us in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest… For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” When we hand our worries to Him, the weight of the world lifts. He reminds us that peace isn’t found in control — it’s found in surrender.
The psalmist also wrote, “Man is like a thing of nothing, his days are like a shadow that passes away” (Psalm 144:4). Life is brief — a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:14). But what we do with our days has eternal consequences for ourselves and others.
So how will we spend our brief time here? Will we rush through our days, or pause to notice the blessings along the way? Will we cling to the past, or step into the new season God has prepared?
Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” The Lord gives us seasons of planting, growing, pruning, and harvest — all steering us closer to Him and His purposes.
No matter our age or stage of life, we are called to live presently and purposefully for the Lord — to love well, serve faithfully, forgive quickly, and share the hope of Jesus boldly. The clock may be ticking, but eternity is waiting.
As Hebrews 10:37 promises, “For yet a very little while, and the one who is coming will come and will not delay.”
Let’s not waste the time we’ve been given. Let’s live each day shaping our hearts for His purposes, knowing our real home awaits — where the sand in the hourglass has no end.