LeBron James, Holding Patterns, and Knowing When You’re Going to Die: 3 Things to Learn From Psalm 39 About Activating Our Brief Lives

April 27, 2015 | ziononth | 1 Comment | Pastor's Blog

Psalm 39:4-7 says: O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah. Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather! And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.

Do we really want to hear how meaningless a lot of the things we do are? No one wants to hear that. No one wants to hear that the chances are pretty high that within a couple of generations what we did will have been forgotten. We don’t want to hear that the sum of our existence likely will be found only on ancestry.com.

This passage is hard to read on many levels because we always live with the tension of working with principle for God and His glory, and remembering that our lives are a brief interlude compared with God and the world without end. And, if we dwell on it too much we can fall into a hopeless state; do we go full speed ahead, or is it all just a wasted endeavor?

A good midweek reminder is that our lives are short when you start looking at everything, but to us they have a richness only we can appreciate. Even when we struggle, we get to say that those moments are ours, and we can choose to measure them by a great many benchmarks. What may be an incremental gain for others could be a huge leap of success for us. What could be a monumental setback for others may only be a slight one for us. God calls us to move, but, depending on our level of faith, that movement will look different for each person. We have our own motivations. We have our own challenges. We have our own pursuits and passions. Don’t always get caught up in measuring your spiritual growth against the next person. Your story is different than theirs. Be happy it is, because it’s yours.

The point is to move. The point is to be active. I don’t see this passage as disparaging about the momentary nature of this life. I like to think it is concise: short but meant to have a meaningful point.

Here are some challenges to keep us active and moving according to this passage:

(1) It’s Never Too Late to Live Differently
Does knowing that we are only temporary mean anything? If you knew how you were going to die and when you were going to die, would you live differently, knowing that it was coming soon?

Here’s a radical concept: live differently anyway. On some level, you need it. We all need it.

How will you live differently today?

(2) Everyone is Subject to the Same Judgment of Time and Space Finality
LeBron James recently echoed what others have said in the past: Father Time is undefeated. Yup. What will that do for you?

(3) Holding Patterns Reveal Our Lack of Trust That God Is With Us in All Things
A lot of people stay in a holding pattern waiting for God to intervene in the way they would choose. If our hope is in God, our trust is that He is with us right now. So the question is: why wait as if God is expecting us to sit in a corner until we believe He has shown up? Waiting and doing nothing is wasting. Don’t let your regret over the past cause you to feel God has to confirm that you’re “allowed” to go and do something. Do something.
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When we embrace the challenge of making our lives longer, not by trying to cheat death but by being active and not letting our demarcated days scare us, the words of the psalmist are not ones of alarm, but ones of rally. Yes, my life is limited, but with God as the beginning and the end, that means there is a lot of elbow room in between and it will all work out. Each story and circumstance has a function for the here and now. And for that we can each find hope. Amen.