The film, Saving Private Ryan, released in 1998, open with a scene of a old man walking slowly across a field of white crosses that mark graves of soldiers. When he a grave bearing the name of Captain Miller, he falls to his knees. The captain's dying words echo in his memory. As he lay dying Miller told Ryan, "Earn this, make this count for something!" Now an old man, James Ryan, turns to his wife and wonders aloud if he is a good man, if he's lived well. Has the life he's lived been worthy of the lives given to save him?
Sooner than you or I realize, we will be nearing the end of this earthly stay. Like the fictional James Ryan we will wonder, "Did it count? Have I lived well?" How we answer that will depend on two things - what we choose as the measure of success and our daily choices.
Hugh Hefner, of Playboy fame, has spent his life in pursuit of sex and money. A succession of bleached blondes whose attention was purchased with his fortune have shared his bed. Many silly men envy his hedonism. I wonder if Hefner ever realizes that he's accumulated a treasure of fool's gold? He came to his place in life one choice at time, beginning more than 50 years ago. Even if he feels little regret now as a result of a scarred conscience, he will soon face God. What then?
About same time that Hugh Hefner started to build the Playboy empire, another man in the city of Chicago made an entirely different choice. He decided to give away his life to tell the Gospel story to as many people as possible around the world. Billy Graham started talking about Jesus. His team, which he kept around him for decades, committed themselves to each other and their lives to integrity. They remained faithful to their spouses and chose to handle the fame and wealth that came their way responsibly and with integrity - day after day. They stayed faithful to Christ Jesus.
A life lived well is an accumulation of days lived well!
It isn't the single stellar moment that makes a life. Rather it is the consistent choices, made day after day, that add up to a life worth remembering.
Are you waiting for your 'big break?'
Are you letting one day after another slip away into history while you sit on the sidelines waiting for something to happen?
Instead of taking the opportunities that are available to do something good, people wait.... and wait ... and wait. Little do they realize that, like the blink of an eye, 25 years will disappear over the horizon of time. Then, too, there are those who choose to waste the present. They're going to do something different, 'tomorrow.' So they spend week after week, watching the same boring TV, playing games, surfing the 'net, and avoiding responsibility as much as possible. They are waiting for tomorrow, which never comes.
Today matters! 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life.' It may be cliché but it's true. So make a difference, starting today. With the counsel of the Spirit and the Scripture, choose the path of the righteous, and then walk it - consistently, day after day. I can make this guarantee - you'll never live to regret it!
Here's a word from the Word for today. "This is the only race worth running. I've run hard right to the finish, believed all the way. All that's left now is the shouting-God's applause! Depend on it, he's an honest judge. He'll do right not only by me, but by everyone eager for his coming. " (2 Timothy 4:7-8, The Message)
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