“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand — and melting like a snowflake…”

—

Francis Bacon

I’m not one hundred percent positive this is Bacon (other sources cite Marie Beyon Ray), so don’t hold me to it.

I like it because it’s true and it’s false. In one way, like James says, life’s like a vapor. In another way, we’re already living a new and eternal life. So, we are both living in the fleeting moment and living in the eternal. We have a responsibility to get to work now, to make haste, and yet also have the joy of knowing that when time runs out, it’s not actually out.