LIFE IS SHORT

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone! Today I’m going to share with you all the story behind my life motto. If you know me, you’ve heard me say this at least once: LIFE IS SHORT. And truly, it is. I was talking to my girl Nini a couple of weeks ago and it was around 11:30pm. She was basically telling me that I should go to bed since I had work the next day. I usually wake up around 5:30/6:00am so it was a justified suggestion. However, I was up because I was working on my to-do list (cheers to productivity). So my reply to her was this, “LIFE IS SHORT.” And to be honest, that is my reply to a lot of people. Why?? Because it is! There’s not much more to it than that. If I could get a tattoo, that’s what it would say.

Two years ago on this day, I lost my cousin who I’d grown up with and his death hit me hard. Loosing Jonathan was really hard for me for many reasons but also because he was YOUNG. I realized that we often take life for granted when we are young. It’s a cliché but it’s true. I didn’t realize when I woke up Friday morning that I would be hit with news of a death in my family. I was simply living my life, going through the daily routine and all of a sudden nothing made sense anymore. I couldn’t feel, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t understand how someone so young could just take their life and be done with it. It really made me think about how I value my life. I realized that there was so much more I could be doing but I wasn’t simply because I felt like I had time. When it comes to God, the author of time, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day (2 Peter 3:8). So the excuse of “when I’m older I will (fill in the blank)” doesn’t work.

James 4:14 says, “ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” We really don’t know how much time we have on earth, let alone what tomorrow holds. Our time is short. And that is really all there is to it. When I was in school, I would pull an all-nighter and be so tired. But then, I would finally get to sleep and a couple weeks later, forget how tired I was. Am I still tired from that overnight study session in the café that I pulled in April? No. But I do remember the bomb grades I got because I worked so hard and felt accomplished. With this perspective, I don’t mind staying up and working on my goals because I know that it will work out in the end. With this mentality that Life Is Short, I understand that procrastination is me taking advantage of God’s mercy and sovereignty. Because I’m assuming I have all the time in this world to be obedient and do what I’m called to. I’m not saying don’t ever sleep, but just realize that you only have a short time here. We don’t know what tomorrow holds. So make the most of it. Pull an all-nighter, go the extra mile, and work hard. You can never regret that. Life is short. What I would regret is dying in the promise. Not doing what I said I would do. I would regret my life coming to an end and realizing I never did that thing that I always said I wanted to do. I would regret taking advantage of the short time I’ve been given to live purposely on this Earth. So the next time you’re looking for an excuse, remember – LIFE IS SHORT.

Side note: I’m preaching to myself because I decided to write this blog instead of sleep even though I totally could’ve justified it because I had a long week!

Stay Blessed!!!

Elena Asks.