If a poor economy can teach us anything it is that money just doesn’t last. Maybe we didn’t even need to learn that lesson we just needed to see it for real. An Allstate insurance ad from a few years ago pictured a family gathered around the dining room table playing a board game. The family is on a tighter budget now and instead of going out and spending money at the movies, they’re staying home. In fact, the commercial seems to imply maybe they never needed to spend the money at the movies in the first place to be happy.

The dark reality is that nothing on this earth lasts—nothing. But the irony is that most of us spend our precious time and resources on the very things that won’t last. We spend big bucks on homes that will fall apart, on careers that can change in a snap, and on people or causes that change over time. The apostle James put things into perspective when he said, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:14)

If this is the state of things, then how should we be living our lives? With what kind of an attitude should we seek our Savior? Perhaps we have pursued a relationship with Christ out of purely selfish motives? Perhaps we have treated him like a kind of spiritual ATM, just push the right "Jesus" buttons and he’ll bless us with what our stomachs desire. But those desires don’t last, and we’re off to the next thing. If all of this stuff on earth doesn’t endure, than what does? If we are a mist that appears and then goes, what should we be focusing on? Seek what endures: worldly things spoil and slip away, but Christ gives us eternal life.

Our forgiveness isn’t where the blessings end, Christ grants us life forever. When our 80 or so years are over, we leave all this behind: sin, our money, our accomplishments. It’s all forgotten when we join the eternal ranks of victorious Christians. These are the people who have run the race, who hoped and focused on what truly mattered. These are people who simply hung on to what truly lasts forever. And we will join them.