New day. New year. New decade. But what’s new?
I clicked on Biblegateway.com, and the verse for today was Psalm 90:12.
“Teach us to number each of our days so we may grow in wisdom.”
Even if we don’t number our days, the days seem to number themselves. When I was young, I looked forward to everything. Now that I’ve got a few years behind me, I often find myself looking back, not just reminiscing, second guessing, or regretting, but remembering and counting the memories—the days that counted—the days that still count the most.
I think numbering our days isn’t merely reflecting on our mortality. It’s not a countdown to eternity. Counting our days means making our days count.
If you’ve ever walked a beach, you know how easy it is to leave an impression. Everyone knows the poem about Footprints in the Sand. And everyone knows those footprints wash away. Everything we do—every step we take—everything we build is like footprints in the sand or sandcastles.
What can we build—what impression can we make that will never wash away?
My grandmother Ruth used to say, “Only one life, ’twill soon be passed. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
The older I get, the more those words ring true.
We so often think we have to do something great to make an impression. Build a legacy. Donate millions. Become a missionary. It’s easy to forget to count each day, sometimes each moment.
The footsteps that made a lasting impression are the ones we should follow. Those footsteps stopped to love people right where they were—to talk to those no one else wanted to talk to. Those footsteps were not afraid to walk their own path—to enter Samaria and talk to a Samaritan, and not only a Samaritan but a Samaritan woman, and not only a woman but perhaps the most talked about and most disregarded or ill-regarded woman in her town.
Don’t think you have to do something great to make it count. Sometimes being kind or being present and aware are what really counts. Instead of resolving to make this year a better year, I resolve to make myself a better person. It’s nothing I can do really. It’s more that I must resolve to surrender my pride, my anxieties, my apathy, myself to the one who carries me when I’ve no strength to carry myself.
I hope you have a happy new year, and as you reflect on this past decade, may you remember the days that counted and find joy in the many more that you will count and make count in the years to come.
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