From my two years at the Memphis School of Preaching (2005-2007) I have a vivid memory of the hallways at break time. The school building had one hallway that ran around the entire building in one big circle and at any given break time you could look down that hallway and see many different people doing many different things. At times guys would be walking the hall refreshing themselves on the memory verse for the next class. Others were walking the hall for exercise. Some might be standing in the hall talking with others. However, all too noticeable were two members of the faculty. Brother Garland Elkins and brother Curtis Cates were and are two of the oldest members of the faculty (I believe they were 80 and 70 respectively at the time) and yet at any given break they were racing from one end of the hall to the other in quickstep on an errand. They were in a hurry. Even at an advanced age they were busy and knew that time was short thus they tried to make the most of it that they could. At the time I always laughed to myself to see those two “old men” passing us younger guys in the hall, but now as I sit back in retrospect I believe they were living examples of the reality that life is simply too short to slow down.
David wrote that “the days of our years are threescore and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10). James would be much more general and just say that life is “a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). I know that I am not an old man by any means but the older I get the more I realize life’s brevity. There is so much we want to, need to, and hope to accomplish in this life and yet only a limited time in which to do it. We all need a break now and then to refresh, renew, and recharge (thanks Polishing the Pulpit!), but at the same time we must “work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4). Sometimes life will not allow a break. Responsibilities persist and the world continues to die lost – it’s in those times of chaos that we especially must remember that life’s too short to slow down!