The full-page newspaper advertisement for a new car was clever, and it made me think. In bold type it proclaimed that this automobile "goes 0-40 as fast as you did." It went on to say, "What happened? One minute you're studying for mid-terms, then you take a little nap and somehow wake up 20 years later with a job, a mate, and a couple of kids."

It's always a little startling to be confronted with the speed at which our years fly away. Centuries ago, the psalmist David sought God's help as he grappled with the brevity of life. He wrote, "Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor" (Ps. 39:4-5).

Rather than concluding that nothing really matters because life is so brief, the psalmist asked God for deliverance from his sins (v.8) and for strength to live his remaining days (v.13).

A popular slogan says, "Life Is Short—Party Hard." But God, who gives us eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, reminds us, "Life Is Short—Live It Well!"  — David C. McCasland