Hearing From Centenarians

A centenarian is a person who has attained the age of 100 years or more. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only achieved by about one in a thousand centenarians.

This morning I had the opportunity to sit in on the North Point Church staff meeting which was led by Steve Franklin who has interviewed over 100 people who are 100 or older. He asked them questions about life and money and recorded their responses. It was a fascinating exercise that got me thinking about my future and questioning the impact of my current efforts.

While 100 years old seems like a long way off I cannot help but acknowledge that in the grand scheme of history, human life is short. The writer James puts is this way: "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:14) All of our plans and schemes amount to little more than mist or vapor when held up against the backdrop of eternity. And even if we live to be a supercentenarian we have very little time to leverage for eternity.

After watching the interviews today I find myself asking the question, "What am I doing today that will have an eternal impact?" I don't want to waste time on things that don't matter and will be forgotten soon after I die. In fact, I refuse to live that way. How about you?