20,000 Days

20,000 days…, that’s how long I have been alive as of today. 20,000 days, 480,000 hours, 28,800,000 minutes. It sounds like a long time when you look backward, but looking forward and measuring in days, it seems significantly less.

 We measure our lives in years, and as we age, they pass us by faster and faster. I wonder if we started to measure our lives in days, would we live differently? Would we apologize faster? Would we move on quickly from unhealthy situations? Would we try something new sooner? Would we stop avoiding the hard?

 In the early years of our lives, passing time seems like a reasonable thing to do. As a child, the summers seemed to last forever; now, as we get older, they dance past at an accelerated pace. And our time is finite, and we don’t know when the end comes. So, passing time, or worse, wasting time, should not be something we do lightly.

 We are so afraid to talk about death and the fact that we will pass on from this world, that we often ignore it. This alone may allow us to use our time poorly. If our time is infinite, then wasting an hour, a day, or even a year, has no real significance. Yet, our time here is short, and thus every moment we have has value.

 God willing, and based on some life calculations, I have about 7,397 days left in my life. Almost three quarters of my days are gone. Unfortunately, I can’t say that I have used all of my days well, but I know I have done better in the past few years, and I plan to use the remaining ones well.

 

I will travel more. I love to travel, to see new places. To eat new foods! To learn how other people live. To step into far off places, and to pray in foreign churches. We have so much to learn from other areas in our state, our nation, and our world. Many of the things we learn will help us to appreciate what we have. I will travel better!

 

I will tell people that I love them, and that they matter to me. We save those times for big moments, holidays, birthdays, or times of struggle, or far too often at their eulogy, when it is too late. This should be an everyday occurrence. Love is such an important part of our lives, yet we often give it reluctantly, as if we only have so much to give. This is something we have an infinite amount of, and we should give it freely. I will love better!

 I will keep doing random acts of kindness, so they are not so random. Thank you notes, holding the door, handwritten cards, inspirational texts, or excessive tips, there are so many ways in which we can be kind. I have always tried to be this person, and I know I have gotten better at it over the years. The impact we can have on this world is immense if we only take a moment to be kind, especially when we don’t feel it, or worse, we believe the person doesn’t deserve it. Kindness should not be random. I will live better.

 I will live with grace, and I will “be” love as we are called to do. This is a struggle I have always had. I expect forgiveness but resist giving it. That is not grace, that is not love. As this is my greatest struggle, it is where I will place most of my effort. I have to be better.

 I will talk about my faith and my love for Jesus. In the secular world, we are taught to compartmentalize the personal and the professional. But my faith should be the main thing that defines me. I know my greatest personal and professional failings have come from denying my own faith or living outside of it. That is not how to live, and I will be intentionally operating my life as a Christian, every day. I must “faith’ better!

 Many of these things I have already embraced, but I have never publicly spoken about all of them. Change is hard, but these are not really changes, this is just a stronger commitment to be better. So, every day I will seek to be better, and if it is in God’s plan, I have 7,397 days more to achieve that. Better!