Friday, November 26, 2021

Happy New Year!

 

Friday, November 26, 2021

Seventy years are given to us!  Some even live to eighty.  But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away.  Who can comprehend the power of your anger?  Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve.  Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.  Psalm 90:10-12

I’m rather certain wishing someone a “Happy New Year” before we’ve had Christmas is an open invitation to wondering if I belong in therapy.  But yesterday, Thanksgiving, began the new year of the Christian calendar.  And, in case you’re wondering, the sacred is much more important to me than the secular…so, HAPPY NEW YEAR!  In fact, for my two-cents’ worth, there is no such thing as secular.  God created everything we know in the universe, and everything else we can’t even imagine, so everything is sacred. 

This is the essence of what our Psalmist is saying.  As brief as our seventy or eighty years are, compared to millennia and eons, since God created time in the first place…the Psalm-writer asked for wisdom to know how to use that time.  And we humans have been asking that question about using our life wisely, with meaning, every waking moment since the dawn of Eden’s sun on Adam’s face.

It's important, no, vital to get the answer at least going in the right direction.  Rome was just a city, and it wasn’t built in a day…there was (and is) a process to rearrange the landscape and amenities.  The human soul’s life is more important than a city’s layout, and the process is that much more complex and meaningful.

So how do you answer the question about your life, meaning, and purpose?  How should you spend your days?  The Psalmist didn’t leave us wanting for the answer; he has three checkpoints (what preacher doesn’t?):

          1.    Life is short, and then you die (go to judgment), so don’t spend your time frivolously

          2.    God is immense and way above our pay grade, so listen to His voice attentively

          3.    When you feel dumb, you’re on the right track, so ask for wisdom constantly.

For You Today

If you noticed, all three of those checkpoints are starters, course corrections, and the answers on the final exam when you stand before your Creator.  What you do with those are the sum of your epitaph, no matter what they write on your tombstone.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©   

For another post on this text see A Prayer From the Hourglass

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