How Are You Spending Your Days?
By Genevieve Schmitt
Having lived in Park County for 20 years, through all four seasons, I’ve discovered there are two periods when the relative humidity level drops to its lowest. Late summer when rainfall is scarce and warm chinook winds blow in, and in the dead of winter when the snow is so light you can sweep it off your deck with a broom.
I have a thermometer in my house that displays the relative humidity level. When the percentage dips below 30 percent it’s time to turn on my humidifier. The moisture it produces raises the humidity in my home to 45 to 50 percent, enough to keep those annoying dry-skin cracks on my fingertips to a minimum and my throat, nose, and sinuses clear.
At night, while lying in bed contemplating the day, I’ll sometimes stare at the mist the humidifier creates. It mesmerizes me as I strain to focus on one swath of the vapor leaving the nozzle on the unit. My eyes follow its path into the air right before it disappears. Have you ever done this? Focus your eye on one spot of the mist; watch it rise, swirl, twirl, and then poof! It’s gone. Just like that.
Same thing happens at Old Faithful when it blows. The steam the rising water produces can reach as high as 180 feet. Hone your gaze in on just one part of the whirling condensation and watch it shoot up, then spin higher and higher, before—in an instant—the mist is no longer visible. Just like that.
The steam from Yellowstone National Park’s main attraction is no different than the mist rising from my humidifier. The tiny droplets of water are seen for just seconds before they dissipate into the air. Seconds. Three, five, maybe ten. I’ve never counted because each time I engage in this optical exercise my mind is usually meditating on how this misty matter relates to my life. There’s a Bible verse that says “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.” Another version uses the word mist. “For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” The verse is James 4:14. Can you believe our lives, in the span of eternity, are as short as a vanishing vapor? God is using something we can see in the natural, rising steam, to compare the span of our days in the context of eternity. If our moments on planet Earth are mere seconds, then eternity is very, very long. Which makes the question I’m asking in this column so very important. How are you spending your relative seconds here on earth? Are you struggling, suffering, depressed, and downtrodden—negative and nagging towards those who don’t agree with you, or are you living full of joy, calm, and contentment, loving on others no matter what. Are you doing exactly what God has commanded you to do while your soul is inhabiting a physical body? Don’t tell me you’re not religious or spiritual when I speak of God. We all have a God-shaped hole in our heart. It’s meant to be filled by Him and His son, Jesus, only. Nothing else. You can keep distracting yourself with other gods and/or calling God by other names like universe, the divine, Mother Earth, but that’s just avoiding the Truth your heart is crying out for—a relationship with the One True God who literally knit you together in your mother’s womb. That God gave us His son, Jesus, to save us from the destruction happening all around us in this life. And the Bible, Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, is the only guidebook to do that. The Bible’s words are God’s words, divinely inspired into the minds of the men who penned them. By faith, we believe God is telling us our lives are a vapor, a mist in the span of His timeline, eternity. There is no end to His Kingdom. With that as our foundation, can you see how important it is to waste not one moment of your precious days spent this side of Heaven? Are you fulfilling the life God purposed for you? If not, hop to it. Time is short. God is real. I promise, you’ll never be able stand before Old Faithful as it blows its steam again without thinking of God’s message in the mist.
I love you. Reach out to me via my website if you need prayer.
Genevieve Schmitt is an award-winning journalist who started her career in television news, then transitioned to the entertainment, and then motorcycling industries. She can be found at GenevieveSchmitt.com.