Numbering My Days

You've heard the saying "Our days are numbered." We all have. And we all know it's true. Thing is, none of us know how many days we have. When an athlete is on the injured list there's a way of listing him or her as "day to day." There was a sportscaster for ESPN that used to tag on to that: "Aren't we all."

And isn't that true? Aren't we all just living this life day to day. That fact has never been hit home harder to me than in these past two-plus months.

Life is fragile, like walking on a thin sheet of ice that could break without a moment's notice, or at least crack and threaten to break.

This morning I opened a devotional book, blindly jumped in, and landed in Psalm 90. Coincidence? Some would say so, but not me. This psalm was written by Moses and is all about the brevity of life. He compares life to being carried away in a flood, to sleep, to grass that will last a day and be cut down, and to a sigh. In verse twelve, though, he says something that made me stop and read it over a few times: "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

How much time do I waste doing things that really don't matter? How many days have I squandered because of living foolishly? If I numbered my days, if I lived each day like it was my last, like there really was an imminent end to all this, how differently would I live?

I know this is really deep stuff for 6:30 on a Saturday morning, but I'll tell you one thing, I'd live a lot more wisely. I'd do only those things that mattered. But living like that, with that kind of heart of wisdom, is a learned thing. That's why Moses asked the Lord to teach him to number his days. I--we--have to learn to live day by day, to live like our days are numbered and today may be the final tally.