Teach Me to Number My Days

When was the last time that you truly took stock of your life?  

Are your days quickly passing by in a meaningless blur of busyness … restless sleep patterns … planning for the next meal … paying bills that have skyrocketed?

Do you often feel that you are merely existing from one mundane task to the next?

When was the last time you thought about your life deeply?  

Have you ever pondered who you are … or perhaps why and how you have become the person you are today?

Have you prayerfully contemplated the person who you hope to be?  

Have you seriously pondered the life that you almost desperately desire to lead?

Or … are you so buried under the constant “doing” that you have left the word “becoming” out of your esteemed vocabulary?

You know … we all have the tendency to quickly get overwhelmed with life.  

Most of us neglect to value not only the number of our days but also the quality of each day.

I woke up one day this past year and was 67 years old!!  

How in the world did that happen?!  

Where did my 20’s go … and my 30’s … and my 40’s … and my 50’s?!!  

Would someone tell me please?! 

When did those precious decades of my life simply disappear into memories?!

And … while I am at it … when did those darling little children disappear?!  

Where did those 5 miniature … but oh so treasured … little people fly away to?!

It seems like the days of magnificent and unmatched importance in my life have scurried away under the espionage of dishes, laundry, ball games, recitals, birthday parties, drivers’ permits, and college breaks.

It is time … it is past time … for me to stop.  

It is time for me to take a break and to ponder it all.  

It is time for me to quiet my soul …and think about the life I have been given.

How I desire to treasure every minute of this priceless commodity that has been bequeathed to me by the Giver of life! 

The gift that is known as “time”! 

This is the only life that I will ever live … I must not allow my only life to dissipate into the mist of the urgent and under the blanket of the meaningless.

I must evaluate where I am … who I am … and what life will look like for me in all the tomorrows.

“So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” – Psalm 90:12

I want to LIVE not just survive!!  

I long to richly celebrate every day of this life that I have been given!  

I want to be “all in” when life is hard … when it is glorious … and when it is commonplace.

The truth is unarguable … it is impossible to hold time in a bottle.  

It is absurd to imagine that we have been given the authority to press the “pause” button on life just so that we can allow the fragrance and blossom of a particular season to last beyond it’s appointed time.  

Flowers joyfully bloom … 

the grass turns green … 

the sound of birds and bees fill our waking hours … 

seasons change on schedule … 

leaves turn brilliant colors and somehow cascade beautifully to the ground … 

snow quietly falls … 

the nights are longer and the days are shorter … 

but then … 

just when you think that you can’t take one more day of the wretched cold …

 spring miraculously appears and all of nature applauds.

And then it begins all over again.

Time marches forward.  Always forward.  

And often, I am trampled in the march of time.  

Repeatedly, I endeavor to dodge the demands of each day rather than to bask in the majestic moments of an ordinary existence.

My life is a gift from the Father Who created time yet lives in eternity.  

I must thank Him for every miraculous moment of my uncommon existence.  

Gratitude is what turns an ordinary day into a holiday!

I must look for people who need a helping hand … a word of cheer … or a listening ear.  

I am never excused from the opportunity of helping another traveler along the rocky road of life.

I must value the things of lasting consequence … and I must quickly and knowingly pass by those issues that merely distract.

And do you know what else I must do on a daily basis?  

I must smile … I must laugh … and I must sing.

I must smile contagiously when everyone else is complaining …  panicking … and criticizing.

I must laugh with joy and delight when everyone else is abounding in worry … fear  … and dread. 

My laughter must resound and echo across the desert sands of life.

And most importantly of all, I must vibrantly sing the song that only I was created to sing.  

No one can sing my song for me.  

I alone hold the treasured melody of my heart. 

My life was meant to be a magnificent symphony that celebrates the glory of God.

Oh … but there is one more practice that I must delight in every day that I have been given.  

I must love passionately … enthusiastically … and relentlessly those who have been given to me for now.

I must exhibit the love of the Father toward those who are a daily part of my life.  

I must demonstrate love by the words that I speak and by the acts of service that I choose.  

I have learned across the decades of my life it is only love that eternally captures the moments of life and quietly records the heart of what life was fully meant to be.

It is only love that can seize the thrill of a life lived with gusto and purpose.  

It is only love that will turn time into eternity.

I resolve this day to embrace the lessons of every yesterday so that all of my tomorrow are transformed into a masterpiece of the Father. 

I am determined that until further notice … I will simply celebrate EVERYTHING!

Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart, but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!