Life is Precious

In our youth, most of us live with a sense of invincibility because we cannot really comprehend the idea of death. It is foreign to our thinking and beyond our knowledge. We'll do things that are dangerous without a thought. Like riding a bicycle headlong down a super steep slope to jump another hill and fly through the air like crazy, until things go wrong and you end up with a bike pedal stuck in your leg.

Eventually. most of us have a moment where we realize the value, and brevity, of life. Maybe it's a diagnosis or a health issue, maybe it's a close call, maybe it's someone we love dying, something eventually wakes us up to the simple truth that our lives are short. As we read in Genesis, humanity is just the dust of the earth instilled with life via the breath of God. At the beginning of the Lenten season, Ash Wednesday is a moment to remember that dust is all we are and all we return to. It's another momento mori that reminds us of the brevity of life. 

Psalm 90 is instructive in thinking about the simple fact that every human being has an expiration date: 

Lord, you have been our refuge in every generation. Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God. You return mankind to the dust, saying, “Return, descendants of Adam.” For in your sight a thousand years are like yesterday that passes by, like a few hours of the night. You end their lives; they sleep. They are like grass that grows in the morning— in the morning it sprouts and grows; by evening it withers and dries up. For we are consumed by your anger; we are terrified by your wrath. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days ebb away under your wrath; we end our years like a sigh. Our lives last seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years. Even the best of them are struggle and sorrow; indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away. Who understands the power of your anger? Your wrath matches the fear that is due you. Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts. Lord—how long? Turn and have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad all our days. Make us rejoice for as many days as you have humbled us, for as many years as we have seen adversity. Let your work be seen by your servants, and your splendor by their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands— establish the work of our hands!

The grand scope of God's power in creation and His faithfulness leads to the just wrath poured out for evil finishing in a request for mercy. But, at the heart of the psalm is the simple request, "Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts." This is the response to who God is and His eternal character, compared to the quickly passing dust of mankind in 70-80 years and our iniquity. The question posed in Psalm 8 seems appropriate:

what is a man that you remember him?

This is the heart of momento mori and the psalm in our context. We are not worthy of the thoughts of such a glorious, faithful, eternal, God anymore than most of us think of the grass we walk on. Couple that with our sin nature and it gets far harder to understand how God could consider us, much less care for us outside of the necessity of justice meted out on our sin. The depravity of mankind is consistently on display- look no further than the current terror and death in Israel. Thus the psalmist brings us to the necessary reminder that our days are fleeting and God's goodness is beyond our ken.

Life is a gift from our Creator, His breath suffusing our bodies, and given for a specific length of time. I don't know how many days you have, but I know the power of counting things and remembering. As a youth pastor, I knew I had limited time with the students in my ministry, but it took a larger perspective to change how I thought about what I did. 

Orange brought me a simple illustration of the time I was given with 936 marbles in a jar. 936 is the estimated number of weeks between birth and high school graduation (or 52 weeks x18 years). Parents and the church have only 18 short years to help develop and disciple a child. By numbering those weeks, we know that there are potentially 104 hours per year (assuming a child is in a Sunday Bible study and a midweek experience) to really pour into their lives on average. That's not a lot of time! Think through Psalm 90 via that lens- by numbering our days we learn to value them more. By numbering our days, we can place the emphasis where it matters- on what God has done for us and our response to that. There's a reason it is "developing wisdom in our hearts" to number our days!

Knowing your time is limited and every moment is precious ought to change what we do. It also brings a much deeper meaning and understanding to God's model of discipleship in our families- 

These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates. (Deuteronomy 6.6-9)

God made us and knows we're not very intelligent, mush less wise. God knows we need constant reminders and to have the truth drummed into our heads continually if we're ever to know it, much less live it. That's why Psalm 90 ends with the prayer to let our children see His splendor and establish the work of our hands. The question then is, are you investing into something that makes the work of your hands matter or are you chasing vanity? We only have so many days, life is absolutely precious, and we need to number them and value them by keeping what matters most at the center of lives!