Simple Wisdom: Number Your Days
One Year Bible (Sep. 4)
Ecclesiastes 7:1-9:18
Number Your Days
“Mama always said, ‘Dying was a part of life. I sure wish it wasn't.”
--Forrest Gump.
I have learned important lessons about Dying and Living from my own mother and my spiritual mother in the faith.
When I was just a young woman getting ready to get married I lived in the home of my Mentoring Mama. I have always called her, “Mama Martha”. Like King Solomon, she was the “Preacher”. She never preached long sermons with words. Her greatest sermons were preached throughout her life. She occasionally used words when necessary.
Her entire life was spent just “giving it all away”. She gave her time away, her homemade cookies and sweet tea, her hugs, her smiles, her “louder than life singing” and access to her home… She just “GAVE IT ALL AWAY”.
All she asked of me is, “Would I quit ringing the doorbell or knocking and just walk right in?” She and her husband, Chief, just let me move right on in and live with them because my parents had moved away. She never had new or fancy stuff. Her house decor and car never changed. “Steady Onward” was her way of life.
We were having a discussion about the meaning of life before my wedding and here is what she said,” Stuff is just Stuff.” No three points. No invitation hymn. Short, sweet, and to the point. She had lived it. I had that information to hide away in my heart for a very long time…
Then came the day that my father lived in assisted living in another city and my mom decided to sell the house to move down closer to him so she could go see him every day.
All of her “Stuff” lay outside lining the driveway. People would walk up and offer “ONE DOLLAR” for her treasures that were now like trash. It was not so much the MONETARY value of everything laying out there that bothered her. It was more the MEMORIES. Many a tablecloth that had covered the table for Christmas Day and Easter lay there no longer as treasures but as discarded bargains. Oh, that was a hard day for sure…
Then I heard Mama Martha’s words, “Stuff is Stuff”, and I comforted my sweet mama. Together, we would make more memories while there was time.
Then came the day that we stood at the tombstone of my father after we had laid him to rest there. I asked my brother why the words were off-center and only on the left side of the tombstone. He explained softly that the other side was for our mother’s name… someday! That thought had slipped past my conscious thought but then I had to swallow it through the lump in my throat.
So, I ask you, why in the world is Solomon dwelling on death in this passage?
Why is the man saying that it is better to go to funerals than parties?
As if that isn’t bad enough he says, “None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked.” (8:7)
He says, “Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us. A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool thinks only about having a good time.”(7:3-4)
Sorrow has a REFINING INFLUENCE ON US!
I can’t help but reflect on the words of Solomon’s father, David in Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
There is a song called, “Live Like You Were Dying” and there is a part of the chorus that I hear when Solomon encourages us to live in the joy and celebration of the moment. The words start out with “And I went skydiving”. Nope. No, Thank you!
But then I listened a little further, “ And I loved deeper. And I spoke sweeter. And I gave forgiveness I’d been denying. And he said, ‘Someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying.” (Tim McGraw).
I have no desire to skydive, but I may take up a new sport like Pickleball soon.
I have a friend who actually has been living in this exact spot… dying. Yet, she lives more like she is living every single day than most people do in an entire lifetime! She has given all of life over to God and she knows that everything before that time of knowing HIM was “Vanity Vanity”... futile, empty, worthless, without meaning. She lives with each moment, day, and unknown in HIS loving hands.
That, my sweet friends, is the message of Solomon for us today… because “Stuff is just Stuff”. How we finish will depend on what course we take. When we live with our eyes focused on Heaven rather than “Stuff” we will find that is “Enough”.
What would it mean to you to live life now in light of Eternity?
Lord, teach us to number our days and prioritize our thoughts and actions.
