It's eleven-fifty-nine on April 15, and the tax return is not filed. Eight-fifty-nine chimes on the wall clock and the store closes at nine. The last ferry to the mainland leaves in one minute. Sixty seconds tick away and the minute disappears—it’s too late.

How many plans have failed waiting until the last minute? How often good intentions served more than actions that waited until the last minute? The frenzied pace of desperation in realizing only one minute remains of time. The last minute—so precious, so short—too late. Lives are spent preparing to change at the eleventh hour yet facing death at 10:59. Too late the call and so little to be done.

Some things are of little importance if waited upon at the last minute. Missing a train at the last minute may mean waiting for the next train. The store closing before you arrive means having to wait until it opens again in the morning. When death calls, it only calls once! It is sudden, swift, decisive and unbending. It's too late!

Life can become so involved with all the busy matters that seem important at the time. We can put things off until another time because we have time. Have not all things continued as they are until this time? Why then should we hurry about those matters that are more important to the future than the present? "Don't worry, be happy, live today" is what we tell ourselves. The day dawns when all these things change and it's too late.

God tells us to think about our life as a vapor. James 4:14 reads, "whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." How empty a vapor is that appears for a short time and then we look and it is gone! How empty our lives are that appear for a short time and then we look, as the clock strikes 10:59—it's too late.

Jesus told the story of a man who thought he had everything to live for—but it was too late. "Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, `What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?' So he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry."' "But God said to him, `Fool, This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' "So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:16-21).

Jesus goes on to explain to His disciples they should not be as concerned about physical matters as much as they should spiritual matters. He says in verse 23, "The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment." In verse 31, He says, "But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added to you."

The perspective Jesus offers is to consider the vanity of life and the precious little time we have in life. We cannot wait until the last minute to seek God. We cannot know when the last hour is so we should always be making preparation to leave this world and be with God. We have so little time in this world and yet, during this time, we will choose our next world. God says we are "fools" if we wait until the last minute because then it is too late.

Are you waiting for a better time to arrange your life in order with God? You are lost and have no hope of salvation and yet you wait for a better time? You want to sow your wild oats today and turn to God tomorrow? Tomorrow may never come—don't wait until the last minute—you will not make it!

Take strong note of 2 Corinthians 6:2, “for He says: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

---