This past Sunday at MCC, we continued the “Simple” series by talking about time. We are all busy, and getting busier, it seems. Many of us need a better way to manage this valuable gift we have, that we can’t get back, called time.
As we began our journey we listened to the words of the Psalmist who prayed:
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.Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom. [Psalm 90v10, 12 TNIV]
Usually, when you hear the words “your days are numbered” it’s a bad thing! But the Hebrew for “number” carries with it the idea of assigning and preparing.
To number our days is to live with focus and intention.
It helps me to think about living with focus like this:
For every “yes” I say, I am also saying a thousand “no’s”.
Saying “yes” to God’s will is also saying “no” to things that aren’t God’s will.
Saying “yes” to my family is also saying “no” to other things that will interfere with my time with them.
Every “yes” is a thousand “no’s”.
That’s where the tension shows up. Lots of us want to say yes to everything. Every opportunity. Every request.
But our time is not limitless. And when we say “yes” to everything…we aren’t living with focus. We aren’t numbering our days well.
Are you numbering your days well?
What have you said “yes” to?
What have you said “no” to?
Josh Scott 