Numbering My Days Aright

I was watching a video documentary earlier today, and it showed shots of life as it was in the 1930s -- automobiles on the streets, people walking across the road, signs advertising hot pizza. I was challenged by the fact that these were real people, not actors. They had lived their lives almost a century ago, facing many of the same kinds of problems that we face today -- relationship difficulties, work challenges, battles with illness, life struggles of all kinds. I wondered what they had thought at the time -- their hopes, their despairs, their dreams for the future. That future has come and gone, and is now my past. Their lives are, for me, mere momentary recordings on film, that showed up on a black-and-white documentary that I viewed in the comfort of my home, circa 2006.

I'm always challenged by the Lord when I see old documentaries like this. And the challenge is this: How will I spend my life? Will I waste my days? Or will I do something that will matter for eternity? Because soon enough, I too will be merely a momentary recording on a blog that someone else may read, generations from now. When you take a step back like that, and realise that your lifespan, no matter how long or short, is barely a click of the finger in the vast expanse of eternity, this puts things in a totally different perspective, doesn't it?

In Psalm 144:3-4, the psalmist wrote:

"O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow."

When you think of the trillions of years that make up eternity, what is the "threescore years and ten" (Psalm 90:10, KJV) given to us in comparison? Well, unless I was made for eternity, my short lifespan is actually totally futile. Even the lifespan of the human species, if there was no God, would be meaningless in the infinite stretches of eternity -- here now but gone in the twinkling of an eye. No wonder, from the Lord's perspective, all the glory of the nations is nothing when it is "weighed on the scales" of God's priorities. Isaiah 40:15 says:

"Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust."

What Isaiah is saying is that when measured on God's scales, the nations of the earth barely even register -- like dust on the scales. How much more an individual life!

And yet in answer to the question of Psalm 114:3, amazingly, God does care for us! Jesus, in Matthew 10:29-31, said:

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

Despite being miniscule on both the scales of space and time, God still loves us and cares for us. In that light, how much more should we care about how we use the time allotted to us?

Psalm 90:12 says:

"Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

I believe it is important for us to have a clear sense of perspective as we go through life. Each day is valuable. In fact, Psalm 139:16 says: "...All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." That means we need to approach each day with "a heart of wisdom" and "number our days aright." Paul says the same thing in Ephesians 5:15-16:

"Be very careful, then, how you live -- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil."

I made a statement a little earlier that I want to explain more fully: "...unless I was made for eternity, my short lifespan is actually totally futile." Most people don't try to comprehend the perspective of eternity, because without God, it robs each day of value. What does it matter, in the long run, if I am good or bad? What does it matter, one million years from now, whether I treated my neighbour well, or was kind to animals, or was honest when calculating my taxes? If I was not created for eternity, all my actions become ultimately meaningless.

You get a real sense of this "meaninglessness" of life when you read Ecclesiastes!). Take a look at these samples:

• Ecclesiastes 1:2 - "'Meaningless! Meaningless!'" says the Teacher. 'Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.'"

• Ecclesiastes 1:14 - "I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind."

• Ecclesiastes 2:1 - "I thought in my heart, 'Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.' But that also proved to be meaningless."

• Ecclesiastes 2:11 - "Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun."

• Ecclesiastes 2:15 - "Then I thought in my heart, 'The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?' I said in my heart, 'This too is meaningless.'"

• Ecclesiastes 2:17 - "So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind."

Do you pick up the sense of futility and, as the King James Version puts it, "vanity" of human life without an eternal context? But in the very same book, Ecclesiastes 3:11 says:

"[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

God has set eternity in your heart. And it is eternity that gives a proper context for your life here on earth. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

I love the way The Message phrases Jesus' words:

"Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or -- worse! -- stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being."

Where is your heart? If your heart's focus is, ultimately, on eternity with God, then this will affect the way that you approach each day down here on earth. For with a proper eternal perspective, you will indeed be able to "number your days aright" (Psalm 90:12) and live "not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity" (Ephesians 5:15-16).