Devotional: The Secret to a Productive and Fulfilling Life

As long as you are breathing, there is still time.

The older you get, the more you realize how fast life passes by.

When a loved one passes away, it makes you think.

Life has a way of playing tricks on the mind.

When you go through the 20s and 30s, you think there is plenty of time to do everything you want and then some.

When starting a family, you’re just trying to get through the “diapers/potty training/keep them from destroying your house” phase. After all, there will be more quality time when things “settle down.”

Before you know it, the kids grow up and become independent. Now you find yourself on the outside of their lives looking in.

All too quickly, you are middle-aged and now realize you won’t ever get back to those things you thought you’d do when you had more time. 

Once you reach your “golden years” (whatever that means), you become acutely aware of how short life really is and how little of it you might have left.

When there is no longer the luxury of time, things that matter have a way of becoming clearer. 

At some point in your life (it’s different for everyone), you realize just how much time you’ve wasted doing things that don’t matter.

I’ve been at the bedside of a dying loved one.  Money, fame, things…none of it mattered.

The important thing was their sense of peace from knowing God and having loved ones who cared enough to hold their hand.

What matters to you?

If you’re wise, it will be the same things that matter to God.

The secret to a productive and fulfilling life is uncovered in Mark 12:

• Love and serve God with your whole heart.
  

• Using the love God has given you, love and serve others.

Mark 12:28-31 (ESV) “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

How are you spending your time?

If for some reason, you lay on your death bed tomorrow (and don’t think it couldn’t happen), how would you feel about how you spent your time so far?

This devotional isn’t meant to be depressing, it’s meant to offer hope. As long as you are breathing, there is still time to change.