In the past two weeks, I have run across two news stories that warn of the frailty and uncertainty of life. One story was about a Yale graduate named Marina Keegan. Ms. Keegan proved herself to be a successful writer in college, having some of her essays published in the school's newspaper. She was planning to move to New York City where she was going to begin work as an editorial assistant with the New Yorker Magazine. An excerpt from her final essay, in which she contemplates the future that lies ahead of her classmates and herself, reads, "But let us get one thing straight: the best years of our lives are not behind us... I plan on having parties when I'm 30. I plan on having fun when I'm old..." She went on to say, "We're so young. We're so young. We're twenty-two years old. We have so much time."

Keegan died days later in a car accident.

The second story is an article that told of four teenagers who were killed in a car crash in NE Ohio. Sadly, the accident took place in the early morning hours of the day that two of them were to graduate from High School. The graduation ceremony took place. As the names of the two young people were read, a moment of silence was observed.

While it is true that young people do need to be making plans for their future, and need to look upon their future with excitement and anticipation, this outlook needs to be tempered with the reality that no one is promised tomorrow. People die every day - even young people. As I write this piece in my office, I have sitting behind me a mug that commemorates my graduation from High School in 1989. This mug has printed on it the names of the 300 plus students who were in my class. I can think of a number of these alumni who have died since our graduation. A good friend from my childhood didn't even make it to graduation. He died in an accident during our sophomore year.

Regardless of our age, we do not have all the time in the world to do the things that we want to do, or more importantly, need to do. James warns, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that'" (James 4:13-15).

Nothing is wrong with making plans for the future. The problem is making these plans without acknowledging God. We need to remember that our life is a vapor that is here today and gone and forgotten tomorrow.

There is an appointment that every one of us will keep. "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). The thing about this appointment (the time of our death) is that none of us know when it will happen. However, we do know what will happen after our death - we will face the Lord in judgment. Knowing that you have an unavoidable appointment with the Lord in judgment, does it not make sense to prepare for that appointment now? Youth does not give one an exemption from accountability towards God. In fact, the Bible urges young people to make their lives right with God now. "Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth" (Eccl. 12:1).