“I don’t know where my life has gone,” an elderly gentleman once said to me. “It doesn’t seem two minutes since I was doing my paper round, at the age of 14, and here I am now in my seventies.”

For myself, whenever I see a group of students I still feel on the inside that I’m part of that generation. However, one look in the mirror soon shatters the illusion! Life goes much more quickly than we ever imagined it would when we were children. I remember those days when the school summer holidays seemed to last for ever and old age seemed to be something that happened to others. Now, I too, having reached the age of 60, find myself wondering if I have somehow fallen asleep for a couple of decades, to then wake up in horror to discover I am much older than I thought I was!

The truth is that life is much shorter than we imagine. Of course, the life of some is tragically cut short through illness or accident. But even for those who live well into old age, life is but an instant from the perspective of eternity. All the more reason, therefore, for us to take firm hold of our lives and to make sure that we are living purposefully.

Young people used to use the acronym YOLO, you only live once, as a motivation for having fun even if it meant being a bit reckless. But I would say that life is too important for it to not to be taken seriously as well. We only have one life, so let us use it well, discovering the path that God has set before us and serving our purpose with faith, hope and love. That way, one day, we may look back on our lives and say with the Apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”