Last night just before dark, I had to go outside and take care of a few chores. We're spending a few days down at our little shack on the lake and I needed to go check on some things down at the boathouse. As I walked down toward the lake, I couldn't help but notice the sunset. The cypress trees, full of Spanish moss, were black, silhouetted against a cyan and pink sky. I thought to myself, "If only I had a camera."

I went on to the boathouse and finished in less than five minutes. As I started to walk across the pier, I glanced by over my shoulder to look at my sunset one more time. But the sky had darkened, the colors faded, the once beautiful sunset was gone. I thought, "It was here just a minute ago, now its gone, how could it disappear so quickly?" As I walked back to the house I just couldn't get over how quickly the sunset had vanished.

Our lives are like that sunset. We are here but a short time. The Psalmist wrote, "My days [are] like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass" (Psalm 102:11). Just like the setting of the sun, our lives are ever getting shorter. James described our lives as a "vapor" or puff of steam (James 4:14), full, thick, rolling and boiling with life. But no sooner does it begin to rise does it begin to evaporate. The shortness of life is no strange subject to the Christian. He realizes that he must do all that he can do during this short time God has blessed him with.

Have you put off things that should have been done in your service to God? Have you begun to think that you've got plenty of time to do those things that God wants you to do? If you have, watch the sunset today and see how quickly it disappears into the horizon. What have you done for God today?