"Teach us to number our days"

Have you noticed how there seems to be a major focus today on trying to extend our lives?  Just do an Internet search on this idea and you’ll find countless articles.  For example, I saw one website that said if you simply laugh more often you will live longer.  The reason I’ve been thinking about this is because I recently saw a TV commercial advertising that if you simply take their pill you will allegedly prolong your life. 

My reaction to all this is that it is absolute baloney that you can extend your life.  Some of you may disagree with me and that’s fine.  But I think the Bible is clear on this topic.  Psalm 139:16 says, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”  God has ordained and predetermined the exact number days I’m going to live. 

To be clear: I certainly believe I can do things to affect the quality of my life, just not the quantity.  I’m not at all suggesting that we shouldn’t eat right, exercise, or take medicine.  Furthermore, I love to laugh; I think it’s highly therapeutic to laugh early and often.  All of this stuff has an important place; I’m simply stating that none of this will actually make your life on this Earth a day longer than what God ordained.  The length of our days on Earth is up to God, not a pill advertised on TV.

Even if this idea of prolonging life is true, this still does not taking into account how fragile and delicate life is.  There are countless examples that could be given here; the horrific bombing at the Boston Marathon comes to mind.  But I think we can look no further than driving from point A to point B every day.  I think about my own time behind the wheel.  Every day I travel on an interstate to go to my job.  The speed limit on that interstate is 55 miles an hour.  I think we take for granted just how fast that is.  Think about it.  At that speed, one wrong move and there can easily be a fatal accident (even if one doesn’t choose to exceed the posted speed limit).   Or consider driving in snow.  This is something that people who live in Colorado as I do contend with regularly.  The chance for fatalities in snowy weather is great. 

James says, “Now, listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on in business, and make money.”  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (verses 13-15). 

Kevin

“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” – Psalm 90:12