Ever pause enough to notice that we often fill our lives with unimportant stuff? We seem to it find easier to simply go along with the status quo, which over time actually leads to a life of heart-numbing mediocrity…and we settle for something less than God’s best.

Sometimes we can’t even enjoy anything because we’re trying to do everything. Can you relate? Is this you?

Time and life pass so quickly. Anyone have kids? Have you noticed this passing of time seems to accelerate as the years fly by?

In comparison to God, we only have a minuscule slice of time to do something with our lives. Wouldn’t the logical thing to do in our little blip of existence to focus on what’s really important? Family, others, giving God glory or [fill in the blank]? Why don’t we?

As I was pondering all this, I bumped into this Psalm: 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. -Psalm 90:10 (NIV)

What does this really mean? Andy Stanley shares this perspective, “If we could see God as He is, we would be more careful with the we have been allotted.”

We typically don’t think about the true context of our lives until we wake up and listen to some wisdom or something tragic happens to us or our health begins to decline, etc.

So what can we do?

If we keep reading in Psalm 90, Moses (yeah, he wrote this Psalm) provides a powerful perspective. “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” We live if our days are not numbered, don’t we?

Imagine if we had the wisdom to understand what we should leave out of our lives, what we should put in and what we should prioritize? When we live as if our days are not numbered we will fill it with stuff we wish we hadn’t and many times when we realize this its too late.

Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse and the author of the best-selling memoir, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying – A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing. She spent her time with people during the last 12 weeks of their lives. She began asking these people about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently and she noticed a common theme.

Here are the five most common onesⁱ:

1) I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2) I wish I didn’t work so hard.
3) I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4) I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5) I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Wow, now there is some wisdom!!!

It is good to pause from time-to-time and contemplate the brevity of life because it will impact what you will do with your time.

Here is what I have learned…living life is not about being focused in the past or even on a future. It’s about being in every moment with God and to be ready for whatever God has prescribed for that moment to be.

1) First, in my relationship with Him
2) Second, as a Father
3) Third to God’s people and in accountability to the gifts He has given me to use on this earth

There is a personal God who has a plan for your life. God has something that He wants you to do and if your not careful, you will miss it! If you don’t pause and dial into God’s plan for your life, people will determine it for you. Stop filling your life with unimportant stuff and stop letting others tell you how to live your life.

Remember, with God, it’s about the journey and the journey is the destination!

Now its your turn.

What do you need to add (+) to your life?

What do you need to remove (-) from your life?

What do you need more (>) of?

What do you need less (< ) of?