Only a Vapor

Last week we spent a couple of days in the North Carolina mountains. Though I’m a homebody and prefer routines, getting away to mountain air somehow brings a needed break to my day-in, day-out fast-paced thinking.

On the last day of our trip, I went for a run around a lake that was a few minutes from our air bnb. Though it was early June, the mountains clung to a little extra chill that felt like the dawning of spring instead of the dawning of summer… a welcome reprieve from the heat of home.

At the end of my slow, contemplative, root-dodging jog, I sat down on a rock by the water’s edge. I wondered how many other people had accepted the rock’s invitation to pause, think, and be captivated by the lake’s beauty.

I captured some photos of the morning, and this morning, a week and a half later, I gave them a little more attention thanks to a Psalm I was reading.

Lord, make me aware of my end and the number of my days so that I will know how short-lived I am. In fact, you have made my days just inches long, and my life span is as nothing to you. Yes, every human being stands as only a vapor. Psalm 39:4-5

As I sat on that rock, I watched the vapor gracefully rise from the water’s surface. At the time, I was more focused on the quiet stillness of the morning, but as I looked back at the pictures, I noticed what a difference just 10 minutes made to the appearance of the vapor. It had nearly vanished.

These verses gave language to what I witnessed with my eyes and gave me a wake up call that this life is truly but a vapor.

Think of the implications of this. It made me consider how I use this little inch of time in the great timeline of eternity. Do I use my time, resources, and energy for momentary, fleeting pleasures or for kingdom-centered investments that will make deposits beyond my tiny fragment of existence? Am I generous with my resources and intentional in my relationships?

The vapor also made me consider how temporary our suffering is. Trials that make us ask, “How long, o Lord,” will be but a dot on the radar. And even those can be used for eternal investments.

I’m grateful for my little ten minute pause and the prayer this Psalm welcomed me into. Here it is again: