Most people have a fairly limited capacity to think ahead. We tend to ignore the future adverse consequences of our actions unless those consequences are virtually immediate. We keep eating too much processed food and sugars because, although we know that diabetes and bowel cancer are likely to result, those consequences won’t occur until some time in the distant future. We keep drinking too much alcohol, emitting too much carbon dioxide, and living in an unsustainable manner.
We live our lives as if we’re going somewhere, but we hardly ever stop to think where that might be. We go to school so we can get good marks so we can get into a good university course so we can get a good job so we can get lots of money so we can buy lots of stuff so… what? In Mark chapter 12, Jesus told the story of some tenants in a vineyard. Whenever the owner sent someone to collect the rent, they beat him up and sent him away. When the owner sent his son, they killed him. Did it never occur to them that their time was almost up?
We are like the tenants. We are frittering away the resources that God has given us on the earth. We have so many opportunities to do things with our lives which will make a difference and count for eternity, but we just waste our time working to buy stuff that is worthless. But life is short, and the time is very near when we will have to account to God for all that we have done. We need to think ahead.