"there has only ever been one perfect man, the Lord Jesus, and we killed him. I only missed a putt."
Life
What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:14When Tommy Burns started the 2007-8 football season on the Celtic Football Club coaching staff, who could have guessed that he would be dead before the season ended. Human life is at best short. How short we never know until it is too late.
Eduardo was preparing to play for Croatia in Euro 2008 until one tackle ended his season and his hopes for Euro 2008. We can be certain of nothing in sport or in life.
Like those James addresses we are prone to say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. (4:13). In some Christian circles people put the phrase "Lord willing" into any announcement of future plans. But that too can easily be just a meaningless form of words.
Of course we must make plans, book air-tickets, accept engagements for the future. But let us do so in acknowledgement of the uncertainty of the future. Let us live our lives in the certainty of death and eternity with God. Let us hold onto the certainty of knowing "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8)
I think what AM Hunter wrote of the second coming is helpful as we look at the future. "The question is not, 'when is the final whistle?' but 'am I in the right position to receive the ball?'" Let us strive to be in the right position waiting for the ball when our life ends.