Halfway There
It seemed like I blinked and the summer was halfway over. June came in like a blast and seemed to be gone as quickly as it got here. Kenya and the kids spent a little over a week helping with a VBS in Munford. I joined for part of a weekend.
In addition, there were speaking engagements, vacation, and camp. Then…boom…July was here and we were shooting fireworks and eating Watermelon. If I blink again we will be in school again. Halfway to school again.
July also means we are halfway through the year. The year of 2025 has, like so many before it, flown by. There have been all the usual pressures and demands that cause each week to speed along. As a kid, time seemed to be at a crawl as I waited anxiously for birthdays, Christmas, and summer break. Yet as an adult it is hard to believe how time seems to vanish. We are halfway to 2026.
July 24 marks my 45th birthday. Nothing special, just another date to check off the calendar and new age to identify with. However, as I pondered the halfway points of the summer and the year, another thought gave me pause. At the age of 45, there is a good chance I’m over halfway home. Even the Psalmist wrote, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years…” (Psalm 90:10).
Even today the average age of life expectancy is 78.4. Men being slightly less than that and women slightly more. All these years after Psalm 90 and the statement rings true. Life is fleeting and it is fast. But it is not without purpose. While we are here we have opportunity. None of us are promised 70 or 80. We actually aren’t promised past this very moment. I’m not attempting to be morbid but simply to remind you to take advantage of the opportunities before you today.
Our purpose in this life is to fear God and keep his commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13), of which the two most important is love God and love your neighbor as yourself. How have you spent your life up to this point? Has it been filled with loving God and others? If not, why not commit to making the last part, whether halfway home or not, for Him.
Psalm 90:10 continues that the 70 or 80 years can only boast in “labor and sorrow.” There is plenty of hurt and pain to go around in our world, but the last words should be words of hope, whether the Psalmist intended it as such or not. “For soon it is gone and we fly away.” Time flies, but so do our souls. One day, when I die or the Lord returns, I will fly away to be at home with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
Knowing those things, halfway home doesn’t sound so bad. He set eternity in our hearts so that we will long for home (Ecclesiastes 3:11; 2 Corinthians 5:1-5). He has gone to prepare a place (John 14:1-4). His plan all along was us being eternally with Him. And in eternity there will be no halfway points. Just one eternal day in the presence of the One who loved us all of our days.
Ben