Precious Marbles

Yesterday I began a post about commitment. I had questions regarding commitment to believers in the church, yet ended with a possible answer in love. In fact, I believe it was the answer to my questions. I want to write more on this subject, but not tonight :)

Tonight, I want to give an update.

Remember the marble post? Well, I ran the numbers. I calculated them up. I numbered my days.

Numbering my months hit me the most. I know how fast a month goes, and when I numbered them, 500 or so, I was taken back. Just a few hundred? My life?

I am understanding more and more why the Psalmist wanted to be taught to "number" his days. It truly works in us that heart of wisdom that he talks about in Psalm 90. It helps us to remove the foolishness of thinking our lives last forever, and empowers us through the Holy Spirit to make the most of the moments we have in front of us.

I can honestly say, this whole thing has been having an impact on my life, for the good. I have thought more than once when I am with my kids, that the moment before me is like holding that marble in my hand. After today, that marble will be gone, never to be held again. It helps me to open my eyes and my heart to the precious moment before me with my children that so often I look over and exchange for the unnecessary burdens I allow myself to carry around in my heart and mind.

So, Lord, once again,

...teach us to number our days

   that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

Numbering Our Days

Moses, in Psalm 90, says,

So teach us to number our days
   that we may get a heart of wisdom.

I had heard this Scripture passage before (or one like it), but didn't really understand it until yesterday.

I've mentioned in another post that my boss and I have had some good conversations over the past several months. We as a company have been pushing and working hard to complete a massive project. It's an exciting and stressful season, and my boss, Bill, and I were talking about an upcoming event where the product will be sold. As we discussed, somehow the topic of the end and brevity of our lives came up.

And I'm glad it did.

Bill began sharing about a guy he once heard about who had a bunch of marbles and two containers of some sort. The man placed marbles representing the number of weekends he had left to live in one container, and the other container held the number of marbles that represented the weekends already spent. As each weekend went by, so one marble was taken out of the number of weekends left, and placed into the number of weekends spent.

Then Bill began an exercise of counting the number of weekends he has left in his life. He estimated the average age of a man to be say 72, and Bill is in his mid to upper fifties.

Talk about a wake up call.

He asked me at one point what would I do if I new I had only 15 years left of my life.

Again, a wake up call.

For some reason, I live as if I will live forever. I'm sure its part of being young, but it seems like at some point in a persons life, they realize that life doesn't really last forever. They realize that most of their life is behind them. Maybe they begin to number their days.

Moses asks the Lord to teach him to number his days, so that he might have a heart of wisdom. When we learn to number our days, it awakens us to the value and meaning in this very moment I now live. It teaches us to be thankful for every day I have on this earth, and to make the most of those days. I don't want to wait until I am older to learn to number my days, rather, I want to learn in my younger years. Life is much shorter than we many times realize.

None of us know when we are going to die. Bill wasn't saying he knew when he would leave this earth. His parents are well into their 80's and he could live that long or longer. But for the sake of numbering his days, he selected an average age and went through this exercise. I am going to go through the same exercise, and I would invite you to do the same.

Find out how many weekends you may have left on average, the number of days, the number of days with your children before they leave the home (consider too the time you are away from them if you work outside the home). Look at how many marbles have been used up as well.

Write it down. Look at the numbers.

May they awaken us to have a heart of wisdom, and to make the most of the time we have.

One thing I've realized as I have thought about this, the marble only travels one direction. You can't ever take a marble from the days we have spent and place it back into the days we have left. That marble is gone. That moment is gone. Never to be used again.

So teach us to number our days
   that we may get a heart of wisdom.


Amen.