Time Is Running...

24 hours in a day.
365 1/4 days in a year.
And how many years in a life?

For me, so far, 69 years...actually almost 70.  If I make it to March 12, 2015.

For others...not as much; or maybe even more.  Its a crap-shoot.

I recently took one of those incredibly scientific tests on Face Book and was told that I still have 33 years and 9 months left to live on the face of this earth!  That would put me at 103 when I kick the bucket...breathe my last...take a dirt nap...assume room temperature.  You get the point.

Back in 2009, when I was moved by the Bishop and Cabinet to my current (and final) local church appointment, I said this to a congregation that had just turned 55...I had just turned 64:

-Let’s say that the average life-span of a white male born in the United States in 1945 is 70 years.
-That means that I once had at my disposal 25,550 days (give or take some Leap Years).
-I have used up 23,360 of those days.
-And that means I only have 2,190 days left!

I am just about to run out of those final 2,190 days.

I also said, back in 2009, that part of maturing gracefully and (perhaps) living long, involved these things:

-Taking into account who others are, and what it is that others think, and do, and believe. 
-Taking risks.
-Remembering who we are.
-And, taking some time to be healed a little each day. 

Truth is, I suppose, that time is always running just ahead of us...until the day we catch up to it.

And while we are still in the race (with time), maybe a good three-part mantra would be this:

-Learn to be on the way to getting better instead of worse.
-Learn to dream...and thereby have a million thoughts and ideas.
-Learn to have an enthusiasm about the life yet ahead.