The 11 year-old was sitting right by me quietly for a while, then suddenly: Mom! You have so much white hair! You are getting so old...
Slightly startled at his newfound knowledge, I soon compose myself, laughed and reminded him to take good care of his old ma.
He leans over and gives me a hug, as if getting old was such a disaster!
Live long enough and age seems such a bad thing. Women in particular have been known to be skittish about age. So we invent what I call common-wisdom:
Age is a number - that represents something.
So it does matter.
Looking our age isn't the issue, acting our age is!
In contrast to common wisdom, God calls us to be aware of our days, to mark the seasons and to number our days!
We are to live with an awareness of our mortality.
Ouch.
We have an expiry date, and we do not get to set it. This is what I call hard truth.
Pair this with:
This remembrance of our mortality is not morbid. Rather it is purposeful.
With the reality of our mortality, this Psalm tells us that we not to simply pass our days, but to observe if our hearts are enlarging and deepening with a distinct quality called wisdom.
So I ask myself:
Knowing that tomorrow may never come, do I live in hostage to my past, or trapped in anxiety about the future? Should I not be fully present in the current moment and realities?
What have I made of the experiences of pleasure, satisfaction, and fullness?
What has become of me through the losses, pains, betrayals and sacrifices?
To know our mortality is to appreciate the present.
To gain a heart of wisdom is to have something from our past to offer the present.
Zipping through our days won't give us either.
These two questions that are derived from an old practice of self-examination* takes both our mortality and our potential seriously. What makes us alive is indication of our true self and the gift we are to the world. What deadens us suggest to us that we are not strong enough or not meant to walk that way.
You may live to a hundred, but would you want to be a stranger to yourself at the end?
You may live less than the average life span, but your spark has left light, love and truth behind!
When God calls us to gain a heart of wisdom, it means that it matters how we pass our days. It also means that we can allow our days to shape and polish us so we can grow age with grace and confidence.
It's time to stop fussing over time management. The sands of time will flow on. The tick-tock will continue.
Manage instead our motives, our moods, and meanings. Assign the most time to the things that matter the most. Allocate times of freshness and energy to what you truly value. Design appointed times for reflection and deep thought.
Pray with me:
And remember, we can count on this:
ThMom! You have so much white hair! Getting SO old...
Slightly startled at his newfound knowledge, I soon compose myself, laughed and reminded him to take good care of his old ma.
He leans over and gives me a hug, as if getting old was such a disaster!
Live long enough and age seems such a bad thing. Women in particular have been known to be skittish about age. So we invent what I call common-wisdom:
Age is only a number
Mind over matter: if you don't mind it, it don't matter.
You don't look your age
Age is a number - that represents something.
So it does matter.
Looking our age isn't the issue, acting our age is!
In contrast to common wisdom, God calls us to be aware of our days, to mark the seasons and to number our days!
We are to live with an awareness of our mortality.
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 ~ James 4v14
Ouch.
We have an expiry date, and we do not get to set it. This is what I call hard truth.
Pair this with:
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. ~ Psalm 90v12
This remembrance of our mortality is not morbid. Rather it is purposeful.
With the reality of our mortality, this Psalm tells us that we not to simply pass our days, but to observe if our hearts are enlarging and deepening with a distinct quality called wisdom.
So I ask myself:
Does my wisdom match my graying hairs?
Do I know, feel, act like a 50 year-old who has gone through what I have gone through?
Knowing that tomorrow may never come, do I live in hostage to my past, or trapped in anxiety about the future? Should I not be fully present in the current moment and realities?
What have I made of the experiences of pleasure, satisfaction, and fullness?
What has become of me through the losses, pains, betrayals and sacrifices?
To know our mortality is to appreciate the present.
To gain a heart of wisdom is to have something from our past to offer the present.
Zipping through our days won't give us either.
What experience has made you feel alive?
What experiences have made you feel deadened?
These two questions that are derived from an old practice of self-examination* takes both our mortality and our potential seriously. What makes us alive is indication of our true self and the gift we are to the world. What deadens us suggest to us that we are not strong enough or not meant to walk that way.
You may live to a hundred, but would you want to be a stranger to yourself at the end?
You may live less than the average life span, but your spark has left light, love and truth behind!
When God calls us to gain a heart of wisdom, it means that it matters how we pass our days. It also means that we can allow our days to shape and polish us so we can grow age with grace and confidence.
It's time to stop fussing over time management. The sands of time will flow on. The tick-tock will continue.
Manage instead our motives, our moods, and meanings. Assign the most time to the things that matter the most. Allocate times of freshness and energy to what you truly value. Design appointed times for reflection and deep thought.
Pray with me:
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. ~ Psalm 39v4
And remember, we can count on this:
My times are in Your hands ~ Psalm 31v15
ThMom! You have so much white hair! Getting SO old...
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