The summer is flying by. All seasons of life are short when you consider how brief is our time on earth.  But this summer seems to be particularly short. The kids were in school until June, and we have some school activities starting the last week of July – where is the summer?

In my memory, summer was a time for staying up late listening to a Cardinals baseball game, then waking up late and reading a book. Here and there I also had to mow some yards, but those are some of my favorite summertime memories.

My parents also believed in good old-fashioned American road trip vacations, where we would log 5,000 miles and see a third of the country. Naturally that means I also want my kids to experience (or endure) that kind of broadening travel. But everything takes time (and money).

In Psalm 90, Moses reflects on the brevity of our lives:

The years of our life are seventy, Or even by reason of strength eighty;

Yet their span is but toil and trouble; They are soon gone, and we fly away.

Who considers the power of your anger, And your wrath according to the fear of you?

So teach us to number our days That we may get a heart of wisdom.

~Psalm 90: 10-12, ESV

Moses says there is wisdom in rightly numbering, or being aware of the number of, our days. When I was younger, it was easy to think that the end of my life was so far away I didn’t really need to consider it. Now I am thoroughly middle-aged, and my own mortality is far more obvious to me. I can clearly see that this summer is short, and this year is more than half over, and my children are growing fast, and I do not bounce back from physical activity like I used to. As my father likes to say, “none of us is getting any younger.” There is wisdom in recognizing all of these things.

The wise response is to use our time well, for the glory of God. As Paul writes in the book of Ephesians:

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. ~Ephesians 5: 15-16, ESV

The King James Version translates the phrase “making the best use of the time” as “redeeming the time.” I’ve always liked that idea. Time is a gift given to us in this mortal life. We all get the same amount of it each day. But the days themselves are “evil” in the sense that we are surrounded by temptations to sin or be self-centered or simply to be distracted. We can “redeem” the time in the same way we can redeem a coupon – we turn it in for something better. We can redeem the time by using the days we are given to glorify God instead of glorifying ourselves, as we enjoy him and look forward to coming home to him.

In his book Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper writes about a plaque that hung in his kitchen when he was a boy. It read:

Only one life, ‘Twill soon be past;

Only what’s done, For Christ will last.

May that be the cry of our hearts as we redeem this summertime, and this fall, and next year, and all the days we are given until Christ comes again or we go home to be with the Lord.

Zachary Boren, Elder