Numbered Days

Dear Faith Family,

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom, (Psalm 90:12). 

Rewind the tape back to elementary school.  It was there that I was assigned the task of writing an autobiography, (I wrote mine about my own life).  Publishing companies contacted me for years offering one book deal after another (ok, maybe that didn’t happen).

The final chapter of the autobiography was to be a spreadsheet recording how we would spend a million dollars (I think that was the amount).  Think of it.  Today you walk out to the mailbox and there you discover an anonymous gift of $1,000,000!  Now what?  How would you spend it?  What would your spreadsheet look like? 

Ok, so maybe you’ve already checked your mailbox.  No $1,000,000.  Bummer.  However, you’ve been gifted something worth much more.  You’ve been given life today.  If today finds you fifty years old, you’ve already had over 18,000 days of life.  If you’ve got fifty more years, you’ve got more than 18,000 days of life yet to go. 

So, let’s make a spreadsheet.  How are you going to spend the days that you have?  Are your days invested in the temporary?  In the treasures that don’t last?  In things that deteriorate?  In things that can be stolen?  Or – does your spreadsheet represent those things that are eternal?  In the treasures that last?  In things that get better with age?  In things that are secure? 

Watch what happens in Psalm 90.  When we recognize the bigness of our God and the smallness of our own lives, then we may begin to count.  And when we begin to count our days we will want our days to count.  I think that’s called wisdom and it begins with the fear of the Lord (the recognition that God is bigger than we know!). 

18,000, 17,999, 17998...,

Pastor Karl