Just 5 Minutes

Ever hear of the Doomsday Clock?  It's a hypothetical thing, loosely speaking, that is currently set at 5 minutes to midnight.

 

 

The Doomsday Clock is a universally recognized symbolic clock face, representing an ominous oscillating countdown to possible technology-related global catastrophe. It was maintained since 1947 by the members of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,^[1] who are in turn advised by the Governing Board and the Board of Sponsors, including 18 Nobel Laureates. The closer they set the Clock to midnight, the closer the scientists believe the world is to the global disaster. (a copy/paste from wikipedia)

I like to think that I can live my daily life with another version of a doomsday clock, and to use it to set the standard for just how I live each day.  I try to use my personal version of that clock to remind myself just how short life is....that I could die in the next instant and that every minute of my breathing life matters.  I fail miserably, but I get solace in the fact that there is beauty in the trying. Here's what I like to process when thinking about my own clock:

• these next moments may be my last...am I doing all I can right now for the glory of God?
• is my focus at the moment on eternal matters?
• am I squandering precious time on earthly things?

Those are pretty lofty standards to live by.  Especially given that all of us are mere mortal men, flawed and broken by our sinful nature. 

I am convinced that God is fully aware of that.  He knows just how frail I am, and He knows just how much I have failed, but also how much I will fail.  And yet, because I uttered and fully believe nine little words... "I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior"... and that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, God continues, and will continue to give me grace, even as I continue to fall short of all that he wants me to be. 

I'm really on God's clock.  All he really wants me to do is to faithfully keep trying, even as I keep on failing. 

Are you on God's clock?  Are you still trying?