Your days are numbered.
Did you know that?
As in:
1
45
16,782
Numbered.
And not ONE of them is worthless or unimportant.
Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days so we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Whoa. So, how do we number our days? Well, the first few verses in that chapter give us some clues. It’s basically this:
Realizing who WE are and what We’ve done in the light of realizing who GOD is and what HE’S done.
Moses starts the Psalm by talking about the greatness and eternality of God.
v. 2 – “Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
So, basically – we must try to see our lives from God’s perspective, since He’s been around a bit longer than we have, and knows a whole lot more than we ever could.
To make sure we get the point, Moses goes on to describe our humanness and mortality.
v. 5 – Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—
they are like the new grass of the morning:
6 In the morning it springs up new,
but by evening it is dry and withered.
Or
v. 9-10 – All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.
10 Our days may come to seventy years,
or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Pretty gloomy sounding, isn’t it?
Almost in one breath – life is here, then it’s gone.
Does it matter to us?
I don’t know about you, but I struggle with being my own god.
By living my life as if it is going to go on forever, and forgetting why I was created.
I forget that by original design, this world is not my home and the things of it are as frail as a snowflake.
I live my life as if I am the author of my future, the keeper of my past, and the conqueror of my present, but I deceive myself.
The eternal Time Keeper sees the big picture of my life – the good, the bad, and the ugly- and weaves them all together to make me into a child fit for Heaven.
The troubles, the trials, the heartache, and pain, serve a grander purpose. Moses’ words help us put grief and trials in their proper place:
See verses 14-17, particularly verse 15:
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
16 May your deeds be shown to your servants,
your splendor to their children.
17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.
It’s really all about seeing things from the right perspective. Who we are and who He is.
If his ‘unfailing love’ truly satisfies us, then whatever the ‘affliction’ or ‘trouble’, we can ‘sing for joy’ and ‘be glad all our days’, because we recognize the extravagance of the Father’s love.
When we are satisfied with His ‘unfailing love’ – then everything else falls into its proper place. Our deeds and our ‘works’ no longer control us but are controlled by the Holy Spirit in us.
The number of our days no longer matter – it’s how we fill each one of those days that begins to shape our points of view.
I don’t know about you, but I really need to get my mind off of me – and onto Jesus!
Blessings,
My upcoming novella, Second Impressions, which is released in a fun compilation called Love at First Laugh, takes place in the beautiful city of Bath, UK during the Jane Austen Festival.
o up of a LOVELY building in Bath that just looked delightful! The Huntsman.
Okay, this week has been CRAZY…and it’s ONLY Tuesday!
e you ready for my Valentine’s GIFT???
To continue with my love for England, I’m going to take you on our quick trip to Edinburgh.Oh my, this might have been our favorite part of our recent trip. I plan to take some time in the future to talk about other England adventures, but Edinburgh was amazing – a city that didn’t feel like a city.
ped in a wonderfully historic (and evangelical) church called All Souls Langham Place.What a wonderful place to visit! Such a warm and friendly church where you could feel the welcome and community of faith. We witnessed a baptism, learned some new songs, and enjoyed a chat with another
hopped on the train for our 4 hour ride to Edinburgh. It was such an enjoyable trip. On the way up, we all actually got to sit together in a four seat set with a table in between. The scenary was lovely – we saw the English coastline just
just turning around and seeing this medieval fortress towering above you is impressive enough, but knowing we were going to get to tour it made it even more exciting. Again…photos seem SO small!!
Arthur’s Seat is part of Holyrood Park – 360 acres attached to the Queen’s Scottish residence Holyrood Palace. The hike is probably considered a moderate one, until you get near the top – which is more rigorous – but we didn’t get the opportunity to hike all the way to the ‘Seat’ because of the lateness of the hour. However, we hiked halfway and had an amazing view 
of Edinburgh and even the North Sea. Hailed as one of the possible sites for the legendary Camelot, it immediately becomes a place filled with stories waiting to be told (or that’s how it was for me anyway 😉
e 🙂 Lydia and I had lots of fun creating videos, so if you want to see more – we’ll have links at the end of the post.
to be in a book)
As we continue on our whirlwind trip to the UK, today I’m going to take you on our excursion to Oxford.
The train took us to meet our guide for the day, Peter. He picked us up in his car and we drove toward Oxford. What a fun ride!! Truly, everyone needs to experience of riding on the other side of the car on the other side of the road!
We also walked behind the house to Lewis’ little haven in the back. The pond, bomb shelter, and wood surrounding The Kilns’ in which he, Warnie, and Lewis’ wife, Joy, walked and talked. It was a lovely little space in the middle of an otherwise crowded subdivision. The quintessential English cottage. Seriously. Lovely windows, rose covered ways…beautiful.
lovely, green, and quiet setting for this amazing man’s resting place.
fantasy!!
you will see the building. The window with the red flower under it is the room where Lewis stayed.
varoius places during our trip 🙂
son, Christopher, in a beautiful memorial for his parents and celebration of his father’s legacy.
On this theme, we ended our day back in London in search of 221B Baker Street. To Lydia’s delight, we found it!!
Oh it seems way too long since I returned from my ‘heart home’ in England, but I love getting to revisit the memories and pictures of the trip.
Peter Greyling was such a wealth of wonderful knowledge, taking us on a two hour walk through some of the quieter streets of London to learn more about the less popular stories of Christianity.
the remains of the 2000 year old Roman wall, touched WW2 bomb marks on the walls of buildings, and even stubmled upon the street where “Sherlock Holmes” died (in BBC’s/Benedict Cumberbatch version). (Note Lydia’s ecstatic expression about this little discovery)
architecture, age, and overall beauty only enhanced the awareness of memories painting the walls. At noon, a clergyman addressed the group to engage in corporate prayer for the nation and world. I was glad to be a part of the prayer, because despite the fact that some in the crowd may not have prayed at all, I knew to Whom I prayed….and that He was listening.
Keith Berry, historian and past of New City Church in Hammersmith 🙂 Keith took us on a tour of the British Museum, where we focused particularly on some Biblically significant ancient history. Assyrian, Persian, Egyptian….all these priceless artifacts were housed in this building and many were thousands of years old.
enjoyed the balmy day with by having picnic lunches on the grass, and of course we spied Buckingham Palace along the way. We also saw beautiful window boxes filled with flowers (I have a weakness for lovely window boxes).
Gutenberg Bible, Magna Carta, Leonardo DiVinci’s notebook, Shakespeare’s handwritten notes, King Henry VIII’s letters, an original copy of Utopia, and so much more.
