Way back in the dark ages when I was in high school, I took two years of Latin. I’m not sure why, but I did it. My friend, Bob, sat behind me. He used to sit there saying the conjugation of the verb "to be". I’m sure we must have learned many valuable things in that class.
One of the few things I remember from Latin class is the phrase tempus fugit. It means time flies. And, that is one of the most accurate things I learned in school. Time is flying faster every year. I just got an e mail notifying me that someone from the school where I studied Latin is beginning to organize a 40th reunion next year. Yes, that’s 40 years. Wow. Some people think that being 40 years old is old, and this is a 40th from high school.
When we graduated, if someone talked about the 40th reunion, we would have said that was so far away we couldn’t even imagine it. That would have sounded sooooooooooo oooooolllllllllllllllddddddd (that’s so old). Now, we are there, or almost.
I remember when we were hearing about a think called Y2K. Remember that? That was when they were predicting that at the turning of the year 2000 computers would crash and banks and public records will all crash. The sky was going to fall in. Well, we survived that event. And that was almost nine years ago. We are almost through the first decade of the new millennium.
What should we learn from this thought of time flying? First of all, that it does. And then we learn that we need to use the time we have wisely. I used to hear a saying all the time – Only one life will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last. We must invest our lives in ways that accomplish something that will last and be worth something. Eternity is real and we must plan for it.
Think of the highlights in life and how quickly they pass. I remember thinking that I would NEVER graduate from high school, and then it was my turn.
Then, it seemed like I waited so long to get married.
Then I longed to graduate from college.
Then as children came along it seemed like so many events in their life were far off.
Now, all my children have flown the nest. Two of them are married. Time is flying.
There are many reminders of the mortality of the life we live. I would like to challenge you to think of what you are doing now that will leave the kind of legacy you want to leave. What are you doing that is impacting eternity? What are you doing that will matter a hundred or a million years from now? Now is the time to think and do something about it before all the tempus fugits.
