The dash of your life

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

A little child, accompanying his father to a cemetery, noticed that on most gravestones were two dates separated by a hyphen. “Daddy,” he asked, “what’s the dash between the two numbers?” The father explained. “The first number represents the date when this person was born, and the second represents the date when he died. “Yes,” asks the little child, “but what’s the dash?” “Oh,” says the father, “That represents the person’s life.”

How are you living your dash? Satisfied with what is happening? Or would you like to have more between those two dates that someday will signify the length of your existence on earth? The answer includes how you got here and what happens to you beyond your dash.

The Bible says that you are not an accident or a product of chance, but a person created in the image of God. This means you are body, soul and spirit – not a dash of black carbon or a mark between two dates. Because of that you need the element of God’s presence in your life that connects with your heart and soul. When God fills that empty place in your heart, your dash takes on definition, purpose and expectancy that goes far beyond the date at the end of your dash.

How are you living your dash, that is, your life? Satisfied? Wishing there was more? Feeling there is something missing? You can have a meaningful life when you surrender all to God who alone gives definition and purpose to life. Don’t be satisfied with a hyphen or a dash that is flat and empty. There is more to life. Find it.