In 1979, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began requiring that pharmaceutical companies include an expiration date on the packaging labels of all drugs sold in the United States. According to the FDA website,

FDA regulations require drug applicants to provide stability testing data with a proposed expiration date and storage conditions when they submit an application for FDA approval of their drug. This testing is designed to provide confidence that the product will meet the applicable standards of strength, quality, and purity throughout its shelf-life. The FDA verifies that an applicant’s proposed expiration date is supported by appropriate studies that the applicant has conducted.

Expiration dates are designed to inform.

Expiration dates are designed to warn.

Expiration dates are designed to protect.

Of course, we may chose to ignore the date provided on the label—and many of us do. But if we do so, we can blame neither the government nor the company that produced the drug. The expiration date is a promise that whatever is in the bottle will work—until the specified date,

I have learned that life has expiration dates. However, unlike medicine sold in the United States, they are not usually disclosed. One of the challenges of life is that rarely do big moments, great opportunities and transformative relationships advertise themselves. They come in unusual shapes, unfamiliar sizes, and unsuspecting packaging. In Acts IV Scene III of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Brutus says to Cassius “there is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the Flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries.” There is no greater pain than to realize that you have missed a life changing moment, opportunity or relationship. Unfortunately, these pills can’t be taken late.

I have also learned that God has expiration dates. Far too many of us assume that because God is so patient, kind, understanding and gracious, we have an unlimited amount of time to take advantage of all of the blessings that God provides. But to make that assumption betrays a profound misunderstanding of the character of God, and a profound misreading of the scriptures. God does not promise unlimited time. Instead, God promises an “appointed” time. Expiration dates abound on almost every page of scripture.

Let me cite just one example. Most of us are familiar with the story of how God delivered the children of Israel from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. That story is one of the most dramatic in all of scripture. God selects an ex-murderer with a speech impediment during an encounter at a burning bush, and then sends him to the opulent court of the supreme ruler of the most powerful government of the day with a radical request: let my people go. The request is first ridiculed, then resisted, then ultimately obeyed after God unleashes a barrage of plagues. As God’s people exit, they are confronted by a natural barrier: the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, the ruler of Egypt changes his mind, and sends his entire military to recapture the slaves he had initially released. With a sea in front of them and Pharaohs’ army behind them, the people melt in fear. They cry to Moses, who cries to God. God instructs Moses to stop crying, and to lift his rod over the sea. Then, according to Exodus 14:21, this is what happens:

Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land.

The good news is that God always opens up paths through impossible situations! No barrier, whether natural or supernatural, can block the progress of God’s agenda or God’s people. That is a fact worth remembering and worth celebrating. Yet, I have read that story so many times that for many years I missed a hugely important detail. Yes God sent a wind to open up a path through the water. But the wind only blew for one night. The miracle had an expiration date! The path through the water was not permanent. The scripture even specifies when the path was closed. Exodus 14:24 says the path closed “just before dawn.: Had the people not moved decisively, urgently, and hastily, they would have missed a great blessing.

What blessings are you on the verge of missing because you are moving too slowly?

Some winds only blow for one night.