WAKE UP! ⏰
You aren't on this planet for long. It's time to WAKE UP!
I’m going to give you a disclaimer for today’s post:
This isn’t the cheeriest article I’ve written on Substack, but the topic is incredibly important. In fact, it may just be the most important I’ve ever written on.
And that topic is your life.
You only get one - at least here on earth.
Today, I want to talk about how you’re spending it.
So, although this is somewhat heavy, I hope you’ll give it a read.
A few months ago, I was listening to a sermon when the preacher said something that struck a chord with me.
“Numbness is sleepwalking your way through your one gift of a life.”
I’d been numb before - life is hard, and sometimes it’s easier to just shut out all the feelings - good and bad alike - than to try and sort through them all. But on the day I heard this punchy one-liner, I was perhaps feeling more numb than I ever had before.
I was in a deeply unhappy place in my life. I was struggling to keep my head above water, so I chose to shut reality out rather than be honest with myself about the life situation I was in.
I was afraid to make any drastic changes to my life, even though I knew change was the only way out.
I knew that if nothing changed, nothing would get better. But I still couldn’t bring myself to stand up. I couldn’t bring myself to rip off the band-aids I needed to throw away. Instead, I chose to crawl into my shell, roll over, and wait for the storm to pass.
Have you ever heard the saying that ‘inaction is still action’? Or, another version points out that indecision is still a decision.
Basically, I wanted to make life pause so I didn’t have to act. But, as it does, life just kept rolling on by.
I chose to pretend it paused anyways.
The result was that I was sleepwalking through every day of my life.
That sermon sent a thought ricocheting around my brain: What a waste!
There are approximately 27,394 days in 75 years.
If I live for 75 years, I’ll live 27,394 days.
Numerically, that really doesn’t seem like very many days. The fact appears especially small when I think about the fact that the earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old.
Guess how many days that is?
1,657,100,000,000.
That’s 1.657 trillion days.
If I live a full lifespan, I’ll only get 27,394.
Which begs the question: What am I doing with those days?
How am I spending my tiny blink of existence?
My favorite passage from Scripture is Psalm 103:15-19 (ESV):
As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.
Whether or not you’re religious, it’s likely obvious to you that all world religions/faiths have one underlying current, one alluring concept, which I will describe as this:
Religion helps people discern a purpose for their lives. Religion gives people an identity, a reason that’s bigger than themselves to act as they will.
Even nonreligious people can see that religion aims to fill a void in humanity; in fact, that’s a major critique of religion - that religion cannot be legitimate because all religions were simply invented by humans to give themselves a greater sense of purpose. This is the idea that religion is, at its root, a coping mechanism for living in a confusing, purposeless world.
I’m not here today to debate the accuracy of that critique or to argue for the validity of one religion over another. That’s for another time.
What I am hoping to do today is remove the proverbial scales from your eyes and encourage you to shake sluggishness and numbness so that you can really live.
The above passage from Psalms reminds readers that our days are both numbered and brief; our lives are a quick existence.
We’ll blink one day and realize we’ve become our parents’ age.
Then our grandparents’.
Then, all of a sudden, we’ll be gone.
I mean, do you even remember the names of your great-great-grandparents?
Maybe you do (if so, I’m impressed), but how about the names of your great-great-great-great-great grandparents?
Am I the only one who has no idea who my great-great-great-great-great grandparents are?
I doubt it.
I think, deep down, a lot of us want to leave some kind of legacy behind when we die. It’s why we work so hard, make money our god, and try to get more followers on social media.
We want to be important, which is tragically at odds with the reality of life: that we will die and very likely be forgotten in a hundred years. If you do something really impressive (or really terrible), you might be remembered for a couple thousand years.
But now’s a good time to recall the earth’s age, which I shared with you earlier: 4.54 billion years.
No one will know about you or me in 4.54 billion years!
So what’s the point? What’re you here for?
Of course, as a Christian, the answers to these questions are intricately bound to my faith.
Regardless of what you believe, though, I hope this post serves as a wake up call.
If you’re blessed with 75 years on earth, that means you get about 27,394 days.
How are you spending them?
What needs to change for you to spend them more purposefully? What’s important to you while you’re still above ground?
What actually matters?
I think it's so important to be the change you want to see, and do whatever you can to make your little part of the world better. Ever if nobody remembers YOU by name, maybe you'll leave something behind that still helps. Make it exist first, worry about it perfecting it later. We have no idea how or actions may impact life down the line. We have no clue who exactly invented black powder rockets. We think they're from China originally, and they were used kinda like fireworks. But someone made that, and probably thought hey that's neat. Fast forward a few centuries, some guy from Germany is building a Saturn V, and oh wow Neil Armstrong is walking on the moon. Whoever invented the first rocket would've had no way of knowing where it would lead. Even a few decades ago, GPS wasn't a thing people ever considered.
My point is, we cannot know now what our legacy will be. Even if mine or your name is not attached to it, the actions we take have ripple effects that we cannot necessarily forsee.
Someone made the first headstone. Someone made the first ship, the first wheel. Maybe we don't create something that drastic, but we stand in the shoulders of giants in culture, and technology.
Maybe you'll never see the fruits of it in your lifetime, but that doesn't mean you can't plant a seed in your circle.