There is nothing to focus the attention like having a limited amount of time. If an essay is due tomorrow, it needs to be the only thing I am doing. If guests are coming in two hours, we need to focus on preparing.
One of my faults over the years has been to lose focus when getting ready for holidays. I am meant to be packing, but I get distracted tidying the house, attempting to deal with stacks of reading matter that have lain undisturbed at least since our last holiday. Kathryn tries to impress on me that this is not a wise use of limited time!
This life has a limited amount of time. It requires us to prioritise. The psalmist had this thought in mind in Psalm 146:2: “While I live, I will praise the LORD.” His simple, overarching priority is to praise God. As long as he has any existence, he will use it for praising God. This means, not constant hymn-singing, but praise in the form of speaking about God’s goodness to others, and imitating his goodness through deeds. Would you say that this is also the purpose and priority of your life?
In the dreadful situation of an illness which will end our life, the diagnosis is difficult news to bear. But it certainly would be effective to order our priorities, wouldn’t it? I hope that it would crystallise my resolve that “While I live, I will praise the Lord,” so that all my time usage would be tested against that priority.