Life is too short to be countin’ worms

Acouple of decades ago, actor Tom Hanks starred in the film Cast Away as a FedEx executive. In the opening scene he is supervising employees. He points to a clock in the front of the work room as he says with intensity, “Time rules over us without mercy. It’s like a fire; it can either destroy us or keep us warm. That’s why every FedEx office has a clock; because we live or we die by the clock. We never turn our back on it. And we never, ever allow ourselves the sin of losing track of time!” If we do not seek after and live within the presence and power of God every moment, every day— if we do not live by the clock, then we die by the clock, and commit the sin of losing track of time. And losing track of time, we lose out on becoming and doing that which could bring fulfi llment to our lives and the lives of those with whom we live and move.

This truth is illuminated in Edgar A. Guest’s poem “Tomorrow”: He was going to be all that a mortal could be—tomorrow. None would be finer or braver than he—tomorrow. A friend who was troubled and weary he knew, would be glad for a lift, and needed it too; on him he would call and see what he could do— tomorrow. Each morning he stacked up the letters he’d write—tomorrow. And think of the friends he’d fill with delight—tomorrow. It was too bad, indeed, he was busy today, and hadn’t a minute to stop on his way. “More time I’ll give to others,” he’d say “tomorrow.” The greatest of workers this man would have been—tomorrow. But the fact is he died and faded from view, and all that he left when living was through, was a mountain of things he intended to do— tomorrow.

A fisherman stopped one day at a bait shop. A tow-headed young boy stood by a sign that read: “Cup of Worms—$2.” The man paid the boy the $2, then asked, “How many worms are in this cup.”

The boy looked up wearily and said, “I don’t rightly know, mister. Life is too short to be countin’ worms.” Just so, life is too short and the days pass too quickly for us not to recognize and relish the gifts of each other that God gives us.

One day Jesus and his disciples came upon a man who was blind from birth. The disciples wanted to know if the man was blind because of sin. Jesus replied, “He was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” Then Jesus added, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”

An art teacher invited her students to go into the country for a field trip. In the afternoon they set up their easels atop a broad, green meadow. Below them was a farm scene nestled in the middle of the world. As the afternoon wore on, with their brushes and paints they invited the pastoral scene onto their canvases.

As dusk approached, the master painter noticed one of her students intricately filling in the detail of the small barn below. Standing behind the student, the teacher softly admonished, “The sun is quickly setting; and the striking, crimson light of day will soon be gone from the sky. You must decide now if you are going to paint that little barn down there…or the heavens.”