December 2, 2004
Everyone is familiar with signposts on the highway.
They measure distance and progress on a trip.
So do birthday's.
Today is mine and I take this personal moment to ask how you are marking your years?
Is it by the world's standard: wealth, fame, power, prestige, accomplishments; or is it by God's standard: righteousness without the phoniness of legalism, the fruits of the spirit and being a witness to others about Jesus of Nazareth?
God will judge my life, but I can say that having pursued both goals I have found one to be wonderfully fulfilling and the other to be, as King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, "meaningless and a chasing after the wind."
If you haven't read Ecclesiastes lately, I encourage you to do so.
It is a course correction for any life tempted by the lure of the world.
It causes us to focus on the eternal and things that last, rather than the immediate and things that perish.
Birthdays are a good time to conduct a life reality check.
I am thankful to God for these years on the earth, but I am more thankful for the home he has reserved for me with him.
I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C. Watch his television show, After Hours with Cal Thomas, on the Fox News Channel, Saturdays at 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
