LIFE IS FLEETING, MAKES YOURS COUNT
LIFE IS FLEETING, MAKE YOUR'S COUNT
Joel Raygor and Dean Hulce
Psalm 39:4
Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered - how fleeting my life is.
About 60 years ago, there was an old man named Billy McCall who would tell me hunting and trapping stories. Actually he would share some of what he did when he was younger. He had guns and more guns, probably well over one hundred. There were many lever action and bolt action rifles and he had a big collection of side by side shotguns too. They were all displayed upright in his custom built gun racks all around the walls of his living room and dining room. I could look but I couldn't touch.
Billy told me that in the 1930s during the great depression, when nobody had work or money, he would walk his three day trap line and each night he would start a fire, cook a meal, then wrap up in a blanket and sleep out in the Minnesota cold. Keep in mind, this was during the winter months when the pelts were prime. Sometimes he would catch a muskrat or a beaver, but he really was a fox trapper. He would get up to $20 for a nice red fox pelt. Today that might not sound like much but, in those same years my dad was working for a farmer for .25 cents per day. You do the math.
Billy didn't trust banks, so every time he got some fur money he bought another gun. He only bought upper end high quality guns, because he thought they would be more likely to hold their value. I recently did some searching and found that back in the 1930s the Parker side by side was selling for around $40 and the Winchester 94 lever actions for about the same.
In his old age Billy had a stroke and died, taking his stories with him. His guns were sold and his name has been forgotten by most.
God's word tells us that life is fleeting, a vapor. We're here one day and gone the next. Some people go through life without focus or ambition. Then there are those like Billy, gathering all they can for "someday" and "someday" eventually comes and everything they worked for was for naught.
There's an old saying that says, "You never a hearse pulling a trailer." All that we collect in life stays here when we someday leave. Psalm 49:17 says, "For when he dies he will take nothing with him; his splendor will not go with him."
In Matthew 6:19-21 Jesus tells us something that we should listen carefully to. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21)
Where are your treasures? Like Billy, are they in your rifles and shotguns, are they in your house, cars, or toys? Remember you cant that them with you. Invest in God's work here on earth and someday you will see the eternal benefits and rewards
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