I see it clearly now. In my youth I had the mind-set that unlimited time stretched before me. If I wanted to learn to play a musical instrument, I could master it because I had plenty of time. If I wanted to learn another language, afford a really cool car, have a great house, accumulate some dough, travel abroad, get a postgraduate degree or two, no problem. Unlimited time lay ahead.

That optimism about unlimited time was an illusion, though I didn’t know it back then. Time, in fact, flies. Life happens. Opportunities start to recede into the sunset. The limitless array of choices to the young shrink steadily.

Our window of opportunity to bring the gospel to a lost, corrupt, and broken world is also closing steadily. So also is the chance for people who are dithering and procrastinating with serious thought about the Word of the Lord. Like the younger me, they may think that they have endless time. 

God feels a divine urgency to connect people with his Word. Only those who acknowledge their sinfulness will repent. Only those who believe and are baptized will be saved. Only those who trust in Christ are forgiven. Only those who are forgiven will skate through the fearful trial of the last judgment and enter heaven. 

“‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).