The world’s life expectancy is currently 72 years. The life expectancy in my country, Kenya, is 62 years. If we round off these ages, you could generally say that the average person will die between the ages of 65 and 70. We often attribute mid-life to the age of 50. But it really is a wrong assumption because the majority of humanity will not die at 100.
Those that clock a three-figure age, and those that hit their eighties and nineties are outliers. If most of us will die at 70, then it means mid-life is age 35. If you’re the average Kenyan, then you have used half your breath of life by the age of 31. For most of us in the world that means when you are in your thirties, you have expended half your battery life. I don’t know if that sobers you, but if it does, it gives a new perspective to reality.
Life is too short to remain angry at your spouse. Life is too short not to teach children the truth. Life is too short to be afraid of evil and the popular opinions of men. Life is too short to live in rebellion against God. It is foolish to think that your twenties are your bonafide years of careless living. More than 160,000 people die every day, and if we are honest, not all of them clocked 70. Despite 70 being short, you still have no guarantee that you will attain it. Twenty-four hours after I post this, 160,000 people will be no more.
Heed the wisdom of the scriptures:
Psalms 90:9-10 “All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.” (NIV)
Job 14:5 “A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.” (NIV)
John 11:21-26 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (NIV)
John 3:16-19 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (NIV)
Your life is a breath.
