The doctor says I haven't got long to live (heart disease), so I've been doing a lot of thinking. As I look back, I wish I could live my life over again, because I know I wasted it. I hope you'll keep urging people to get their lives straightened out, because once you get in my condition it's too late. — H.R.

One thing that's impressed me as I've grown older is just how fast time passes. When we are young, we think we have all the time in the world—but we don't, and all too quickly our lives are over.

Your experience reminds me of King Solomon in the Bible, who spent much of his life searching for happiness. He tried everything—but in the end realized it had been a waste. As he neared his life's end, he urged those who were still young not to make the same mistake. He wrote, "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth ... Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:1,13).

He had discovered what most people never realize until it's too late: Life is only worth living when we put God at its center. I hope your words will cause some young person to stop and look at their life, and then turn to Christ. Jesus' words are true: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10).

Yes, it may be too late for you to change the past—but it's not too late to change your future. Some day soon, you will die and enter eternity. Are you prepared for that day? You can be, by turning to Christ for the forgiveness and hope that you need.