3,440 Days and Counting…Down

My days are numbered. No, I haven’t been diagnosed with a terminal illness, given so many months to put my affairs in order. But reading in Psalm 90, verse 10, I learn that my life expectancy is somewhere around threescore and ten [(3 x 20) + 10 = 70] or seventy years. I never was much good at math, but I figure that, starting today, I have about 3,440 days to live, by God’s grace and for His glory.

That is less than a decade to make my mark on the world, to “let the beauty of the Lord…be upon (me) and establish the work of (my) hands…” (verse 17).

I’m not being morbid. On the contrary, I believe it’s prudent to consider the course of my life while I still have time to correct it. You may have more days to count than I do (or fewer, as the case may be), but meditate with me today on the fleeting nature of life.

Psalm 90 goes on to suggest (in verse12), “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Counting our days can teach us wisdom.

Our God is a Master Mathematician

He works as many wonders with numbers as He does with words. He knows millions of stars by name, He keeps accounts of the sands on the seashore and the sparrows that fall. He tracks our development from conception to delivery, then from birth to that looming threescore-and-ten. He collects our tears in His bottle. He writes books about the days and details of our lives…and numbers the very hairs on our head.

Why Count Our days? Why Count Anything?

• Awareness – just to appreciate their existence and expiration date.
• Accounting – to check if you have enough…enough days to accomplish a project, enough days to make that detour. To calculate costs.
• Asset Management – to decide wisely how best to use the days you have. To spend, to save, or to invest?
• Arrangement – to divide into an intelligent order and multiply effectiveness.
• Accountability – to remember the Reckoning Day. Not because we are legalists, but because we are faithful stewards who keep in mind the future reviews—and the rewards.

“Nine-tenths of wisdom consists of being wise in time.” –Theodore Roosevelt, Speech 1917

Numbering the Days with Wisdom

Droplet Gift #7: I’ll keep careful count not just of the days until I retire, publish my book, or leave for vacation, but of every day.

As we learn and earn this heart of wisdom, we’ll find joy and satisfaction (verse 14). Our lives are transformed as we discover the strategic importance of each day’s contribution to God’s total purpose for our Book of Days.

So as women with wise hearts, let’s…

• Pause. Feel—experience—the days. Live life to the fullest. Don’t let time slip by without noticing.
• Perceive. Each passing day holds its transcendence, because tomorrow my 3,440 will slip to 3,439.
• Plan. As a wise person once said, “Live each day as if it might be your last, but plan as if you’ll live forever.” Carpe Diem–SEAS the Day!
• Prioritize. As more hairs fall out and more chapters are written and finished, ask, “What next, Father?”

Lord, don’t take me home until…

I’ve learned the wisdom of counting my days.