When Life Feels Too Short

My twin’s death has tattooed an awareness of life’s shortness on my soul. I will never again be able to slip into that intoxicating delusion that death is not coming for me too. Maybe my slicing awareness has something to do with the fact that she is my other half, and now my other half is no longer on earth. The reality of my mortality is tied to me in a way that I will never be able to fully escape.

Sometimes I find this awareness of death uncomfortable, like a scratchy shirt keeping me from getting too settled in this life here and now. At times, it seems the knowledge of the shortness of my life is somehow keeping me from really enjoying my days.

Biblical writers show a different approach to their awareness that life is short. It’s as if they’re painting vivid sketches of life’s brevity on a universe-huge canvas and saying, “Look, the whole picture is so much bigger, huger than these sketches!”

One can imagine their excitement and joy as they wrote.

Psalm 39 compares life’s shortness to the width of a hand and a breath and then goes on to ask, “And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you” (Psalm 39:7, NLT).Psalm 103 equates life’s brevity with grass and wildflowers and then goes on to exult, “But the love of the LORD remains forever with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children’s children of those who are faithful to his covenant, of those who obey his commandments!” (Psalm 103:17-18, NLT).

First Peter 1 quotes the Old Testament passage about people being like grass and their beauty like a flower in the field, but before that reminder, the author writes, “For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God” (1 Peter 1:23, NLT).

James 4 paints a picture of life’s briefness as a shadow, exhorting us to always look to the Lord as the ultimate planner for all we do. “What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:14-16, NLT).

And after comparing our lives to a breath and a shadow, Psalm 144 goes on to exclaim, “Joyful indeed are those whose God is the LORD” (Psalm 144:15b, NLT).

If I take a biblical approach to my stinging awareness that this life is short, then I should be more joyful, not less. Why? Because I can look around at my days—some of which I find delight in, some of which seem to drag on and on, and some of which are downright horrible—and remember, “Oh, yes, this time on earth is just the sketch on a much bigger canvas.” My life does not begin and end with my earthly days.

There is a God much bigger than my earthly minutes in whom I can put my hope. There is a God much bigger than my earthly hours whose love is saving me as I put my faith in Him. There is a God much bigger than my earthly afternoons who is giving me the opportunity to be born again into a never-ending life. There is a God much bigger than my dark nights who is the ultimate planner of all my time. There is a God much bigger than my mornings who wants to be, and always will be if I so choose, the One I run to.

Small Ways I Intentionally Remind Myself of Life’s Brevity

1. I’ve long been inspired by the practice of a certain monk group who used to trace the “m” shape on their palms as a reminder to themselves of life’s brevity. Each “m” reminded them of a two-word phrase in Latin, momento mori. Translated into English, it means, “Remember, that (you have to) die.”

2. I’ve also long-enjoyed wandering in cemeteries. Rather than finding it morbid or frightening, I like to linger in the quiet, perusing the names and dates etched in the stones and wondering about the full lives they represent.

Hands Photo by Micah Strutzenberger 2022