525,600

How do you measure a life? In the musical “Rent” the cast sings, “525,600 minutes-how do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee, in inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In 525,600 minutes-how do you measure a year in the life?” Think for a moment: How do you measure a life? What is important to you?

We are all given the same gift of time. There are 525,600 minutes in 365 days. The older we get, the more the moments and the days and even the years seem to run together. How do you mark what is important? The song quoted above answers this way: “How about love? Measure in love. Seasons of love…” The love we share, the relationships we participate in, the friendships we enjoy are what give light and life to our moments and our days. We’ve all experienced how time seems to fly when we are with a loved one and conversely, how minutes drag on like days when we are apart. The trick is to make each moment count because all we are really given is this time right now. We can’t project 525,600 minutes into the future; all we have is this present moment.

In Psalm 103, the psalm writer reminds us that human beings are as inconsequential as dust and as ephemeral as a flower of the field. “The wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.” We human beings are uncomfortable with this notion of impermanence. We like to think that our lives mean something, that we leave a lasting legacy, that somehow we make our mark as we pass through life.

Recently, my family and I celebrated my father’s life. My dad passed away after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Because my father fought so long and so hard, I had a lot of time to reflect on how to measure a life. As his physical body became weaker, Dad’s spirit remained strong. The essential qualities of his personality were not diminished even as his strength waned. The stories we shared at his funeral were all about the relationships that he had with each one of us and the love we shared. As one of my sisters said, “Dad made each one of us feel we were his favorite!” That’s a wonderful testimony to loving relationships.

As special as my father was, he wasn’t perfect. But our Heavenly Father is. The Bible assures us of this over and over again. Psalm 103 continues, “The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.” I can’t imagine a love more all-encompassing than from everlasting to everlasting! If you are feeling lonely and far from God, the good news is that God loves you, right now, just as you are! God loves you from everlasting to everlasting. May you experience this love all the moments of all your days. Blessings.