Ed, my neighbour next door, is home from hunting with both bad and good news. The bad news started when he and his hunting buddies stopped at a small-town diner for a quick supper before the last two-hour drive to the hunting cabin. All four of them became ill before they got to the cabin. The first two days were rocky and it was the third day before the group's health was pretty much back to normal.
They shot a moose, but it had to be carried out a fair distance before they could get the ATV in to load the meat onto it. One of the hunters sprained an ankle.
Another hunter snored so loudly they forced him to sleep in the truck and Ed can't sleep well sitting up.
Because they like to get at least two moose, their hunting went into overtime. They shot one moose on day four and then had no luck at all. By the end of two weeks and beginning the third week, patience and good humour had totally disappeared. It was then that Ed tried his famous moose mating call and a foolish young moose came running. The good news was that the hunters were able to leave after a day of overtime with two moose and Ed as a moose-calling hero.
It's not unusual for hockey games to go into overtime. Sometimes three regular periods of 20-minute hockey is not enough to establish a winner. Overtime hockey tends to be very intense. Every player knows it is an all or nothing time, a do or die time, a win or lose time, and they do their best to pick up their game for a win.
Ed was surprised when I told him that God's word speaks of overtime for our lives. The Bible says, "The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty, if we have the strength, yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away."
"Lots of people live past 70 and 80! Are you saying once they are past 70 or 80, they are into overtime?" Ed asked.
"I think so, but remember we are all to number our days and gain a heart of wisdom before it is too late. If we literally number our days using 70 years, that means, if we reach 70, we have used up our 25,567 days. If we are 40, we have 11,000 days left. If you are 60, you only have 3,652 days left," I told Ed.
"Where does that leave you, Ray?" Ed asked, a little too eagerly for my liking.
"At 66, I have about 1, 477 days left, so I will be gone or facing overtime before much longer," I answered.
"I'm not planning on dying before 70 - or after it." Ed said with a smirk.
"Good luck with that. George Bernard Shaw said, 'Life's ultimate statistic is the same for all people - one out, one dies.' You can't beat those odds," I told Ed.
Whether before 70 or after 70, wisdom teaches the same lesson, "Life is short; Death is sure; Sin is our curse; Christ is our cure."
