Posted on March 5, 2025

Are you a ‘121’ or a ‘221’ in life?

N ow that I am in my sixties I know less and less every day. When I was younger, I was more confident in my thinking, reasoning, and grasp on the obvious.

Now, I doubt most of what I hear and put little trust in what I see (Artificial Intelligence allows the unbelievable and lies to be believable and true).

But I still believe in God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Bible.

Having conducted in excess of five-hundred funerals, I believe the Bible as it states, “There is an appointed time for everything.

And there is a time for every event under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) and “… it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Have you asked yourself “What am I doing with the time I am given?” Many people accomplish great things during their lives.

Many more do not accomplish much of anything. I often ask myself what I am accomplishing.

In the letter of Philippians, the apostle Paul wrote “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) This encourages me and hopefully encourages you.

My whole purpose (or at least it should be) is to live my life for Christ and after I die, what I gain is far more than what I gave up in this present life. But I still struggle between what I know and what I feel. Do you?

In the same letter, Paul wrote about others who left him and described them this way, “For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:21).

As a follower of Christ, I know I have a limited time to live, so why is it so easy for me to seek my own interests instead of Christ? I find myself living between the reality of Philippians 1:21 and the lure of Philippians 2:21.

I want to live a life closer to 1:21 than 2:21. But I wake up each day and ask Christ to help me live 121.

At the end of the day, I often review my thoughts and actions and realize that too often I lived closer to 221.

Are you living a 121 or a 221 life?

Clayton P. Adams, West Memphis, Arkansas, email: claytonpadamslll@gmail.com.

In the letter of Philippians, the apostle Paul wrote “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”