You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

Time – Pink Floyd

I saw a quote on a gaming forum the other day that made me pause. A young indie developer was lamenting how long his game was taking to make and he was showing all the signs of burnout. Another dev commented they should just take a break and come back to it in 6 months or a year. ‘You can always come back and finish an idea later.’ Everyone agreed. I would have agreed even 5 years ago.

All during your 20’s and 30’s, time seems infinite. When I reached 40, I realized that statistically, I was HALF WAY through life (assuming average age of death is 77). Time goes so much faster than you expect. When I was doing some financial planning to see if I was on track, this quote came up:

The days are long, but the years are short.

While we are doing the day-to-day living, our investments are compounding for us. If we haven’t been saving for our retirement then we are going to be shocked how quickly a decade goes by and we’re far behind where we hoped.

Not only that, but all those projects and goals I was going to get to some day had less and less time to be done. I have seen this with my friends that have kids. As their kids grow up, they get about 10 good years of summer fun with them before they are teens with their friends or off to college. Then we wake up and realize we are 50. Well over halfway through life.

When you are young, you have all the time and energy in the world – but no money.
When you are middle-age, you have energy and money – but no time.
When you are old, you have money and time – but no energy (or health).

I’m not even 50 and am starting to have friends come down with life-limiting, permanent disabilities or dying of actual medical issues (not just accidents or freak events). The average age of death in the United States is 77 years old. We forget that means that 50% of people never make it to that age. I was recently completely surprised by not 1, but 2, life-threatening medical conditions – I have learned clearly that it can all end very quickly. This is not new:

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Luke 12:16-21

If you think about what’s next, you can become disillusioned:

And I detested all the fruits of my toil under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who is to come after me. And who knows whether that one will be wise or a fool? Yet that one will take control of all the fruits of my toil and wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
So my heart turned to despair over all the fruits of my toil under the sun. For here is one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and that one’s legacy must be left to another who has not toiled for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. For what profit comes to mortals from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which they toil under the sun? Every day sorrow and grief are their occupation; even at night their hearts are not at rest. This also is vanity.

There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink and provide themselves with good things from their toil. Even this, I saw, is from the hand of God. For who can eat or drink apart from God? For to the one who pleases God, he gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the one who displeases, God gives the task of gathering possessions for the one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chase after wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:18-26

So what is one to do? If we embrace the fact that all these toils are ultimately for not, then we are to set our eyes on something that lasts. God gives us clear direction as to what we should spend our lives on – the things that matter for eternity. I have been re-evaluating all the things I spend my time on now and choosing carefully. What should we choose? Loving our neighbor and toiling in the vineyard so we can show ourselves to be servants who only did what they should have done.

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

Luke 12:33