What Did I Do With The Years?

It was a typical Friday afternoon for me, trying to get ready for Sunday worship and finding instead that there are ten other things demanding my attention. Then a vendor called about a project he was doing for us, and he began by apologizing for the delay in getting back to me. I told him, “No problem. I know the feeling. Frankly, I wouldn’t have gotten to this until next week anyway. But I do need to get this done by Easter.”  My vendor/friend then reminded me, “Easter’s going to be here before you know it.” Which led to a discussion of how it seems like it was just the beginning of the year and already it is time to stress about Easter. “I don’t know if this is good or bad, being so busy that you lose track of time,” I said. To which he said, “It’s bad.  You can’t get to the things that matter.”  “Yeah, you don’t want to get to the end of your life and say ‘What did I do with all those years?’’, I heard myself say.  And then there was an awkward pause.

It was one of those unintended “light bulb” moments for me.  My friend responded, “There are two things you will remember when you get to that point: places you went and things you did with your family.  Travel and family.”  And we talked about that a few minutes and agreed that next week we will try to get our project done.  As I drove home I put on a little “smooth jazz” music, my typical Friday commute music, in an effort to transition my mind into “weekend mode.”  Listening to the melodies and soft beats I wondered, what two things will I say, at the end, made all the running around in life worthwhile.  For my friend it was travel and family. But what would I say?

I hope I will be able to give three answers to that question. One: “I served God as best I was able in the ways he called me.”  Which leaves me answers two and three. For me, being able to have my wife and children and grandchildren, and even grand-dogs, to enjoy my “post-work” years is a definite second answer.  What am I going to do now to make sure I can give that answer when the years are nearly over?  I don’t know what number three is.  That may seem strange, but what is it I hope I can say about what I did with all those years that will give meaning to my existence, other than answers one and two? I worked. A lot. So what? Do I want answer three to be that I worked a lot?

How about you? What are you doing with all of your remaining years? What two or three things do you believe will give meaning to what you did with all those years?