Statisticians tell us that the average life span is now around 75 years. If you are under 30 then you think that is a long time. If you are around my age, you are beginning to realize that is not really very long at all. A few years ago, someone went to the trouble to research what people do with their time. If we live to be 75, most of us will have spent

• 3 years, 24 hours a day, acquiring an education—grade school, high school, college.

• 7 years eating, 24 hours a day—some more, some less, obviously.

• 14 years, day and night, working.

• 5 years riding in automobiles or airplanes.

• 5 years talking with each other—again some more and some less.

• 1 year sick or recovering from sickness.

• 24 years of our life sleeping!

• 3 years reading books, magazines, and newspapers.

• 12 years amusing ourselves—watching TV, going to the movies, fishing, etc.

That totals to 75 years. As I looked at these statistics I began thinking. Let us suppose that you spent every Sunday of your life, for 75 years—through infancy, childhood, adulthood, old age—worshipping during two church services each Lord’s day. Now if you did, how much time would you have spent worshipping God? Figure it out—the answer is less than 11 months.

Let’s double it because you have always attended two Bible classes a week. If you have never missed a Bible class in all your life, that still just totals 11 months.

Think about that—5 years in an automobile and just 22 months in church! Twelve years amusing ourselves in front of a TV, and just 22 months in church. And that is if you have always attended and never missed!

That tells us a little bit about the brevity of time and our priorities in life. —adapted from Melvin Newland, Facing the New Year

“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” —Colossians 3:2