Living in the Dash

If you have ever gone to a graveyard and walked among the tombs, you would notice that each headstone has certain information on it regarding the life of the person who is buried there. Included in that information is the date of birth and the date of death. Between those two dates is a dash. That dash, though quite small, is extremely large in significance, for in that little dash is the sum total of the days that person existed on earth. Some dashes represent a life that was short, and others show a life lived well into the nineties or even past a hundred years. 

The thread of life is exceedingly fragile, and we are always just one heartbeat away from eternity from the moment of our conception until we take our last breath. The reality of that fact should cause us to want to make the most of our choices while we can because once we have lived up all the days of our dash and we stand before God, our right to choose ceases. We must strive to make choices that are in harmony with God’s plan and purpose for our life, in order to live to our utmost potential.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.

—2 Peter 3:10–11 KJV