Teach us to number our days

By Andrew Coakley

We are now living in a world where people are dropping dead suddenly and sometimes, without any medical explanations. Even some people who have seemingly been healthy up to the p

oint of their demise have suddenly fell out and died.

The Covid-19 pandemic took so many lives away from us over the past few years. Yet, even today, we are still losing people at an alarming rate, even after there was a lull in Covid deaths. It seems that every day we hear of people within our communities and even around the world who suddenly passed out and died. They were not on a sick bed, were not struggling with a long illness in a hospital and in some cases an immediate knowledge of any underlying medical issues was not discovered.

These sudden deaths are not happening just among the elderly. People in their 20s, 30s and even teenagers have reportedly been falling down dead, with no explanations.

These sudden passings have left many people baffled. Some of

us have been left emotionally overwhelmed and off balance and other people have been left simply afraid. How do you explain what happened? How does one deal with such unexpected fatalities of people we loved?

The terminology of sudden death was something that was once only associated with babies who died suddenly. It is called Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), or crib death. It’s something doctors describes as “the unexplained death, usually during sleep, of a seemingly healthy baby less than a year old.”

Even with a scientific explanation, losing a child suddenly remains a tragic, heart-breaking occurrence. The pain is no easier when a teenager, a young adult or even an older person dies suddenly. In these times, the admonishment in Psalm 90:12 takes on new meaning: “Teach us to number our days, so that we may present a heart of wisdom.” The New Living translation makes the meaning much clearer – “teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.”

While there are many ideologies floating around as to what some people consider to be the underlying causes of these sudden deaths and some of these thoughts may have some merit, because I personally cannot prove the validity of these theories, I rather not expound on them.

Doctors have given their medical explanations surrounding some of these sudden deaths and from my research, all of their explanations are related to heart issues. Some may see this as over

-reach, but when Jesus spoke about the last days and about his return, among the list of signs he warned to look for was the fact that “men’s hearts will fail them.”

More specifically he said this “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” – Luke 21:26 KJV

Of course, according to the scriptures, this heart failure that Jesus spoke about would be as a result of fear. Fear of what? Fear of the things that are coming on the earth. What things? When the powers of Heaven are shaken. In other words, fear, combined with anxiety and stress are causing the hearts of many people to literally stop beating.

It is in this context that the prayer by Moses takes on new meaning “teach us to number our days, so that we may present a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

It is a prayer all of us should whisper each day we get an opportunity to see a new sunrise. It is our way of asking God to help us account for the time which he has given us, simply because we don’t know when it will come to an end. The truth is many of us take time for granted. We waste time, kill time and think nothing of it.

We spend hours binge watching television, surfing the internet, engrossed in social media or carousing in endless partying, hardly doing anything productive and time passes quickly. Man

y people spend years angry at someone, not speaking to someone who have offended them or dragging on family and friend disputes. By the time we do look up from whatever it is that has distracted us, years have gone by, the world has changed and our lives seemed to have been on pause in terms of development, growth and the attainment of wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

It’s interesting that Moses would ask God to “teach us to number our days”. There is an assumption that we, as humans don’t really know how to measure our days. Perhaps that may have something to do with the fact that our math and God’s math do not add up.

We measure our time here on earth in days, weeks, months, years and decades; God measures our time here on earth in generational increments, with purpose thrown in as the major mathematical foundation. Moses, in that same chapter gave us a glimpse into God’s math when he noted that “for in your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night. (Psalm 90:4)

So, can you see the problems that can arise with our calculations?

We must learn to number our days because our time really does not belong to us. Yes, I know we think it does. That’s why we can make the statement “don’t waste my time”

. In essence, it is not our time. Time here on earth is a gift to all of us and we must use it wisely. While quantity of life is important to God (the length of our days is seventy years – or eighty if we are strong. Psalm 90:10), quality of life (purpose) tips the balance of the scales.

What are we doing with the time God has gifted us? Are we fulfilling our

purpose for our time here on earth? I know, there are thousands of people out there who do not subscribe to the Biblical views of humans being placed on earth for a purpose. For them, human beings haphazardly found themselves here on this planet, without any real purpose or direction. They are convinced that we just exist and when we die, it’s all over. So, obviously, these people will give no consideration to what I am trying to express.

But for those of us who do believe in Jehovah God, who has given us a higher purpose for life; those of us who believe in a reason for our existence and that death is not the end of us, we must consider the need for learning to number our days. In his Psalm where he pointed out the fact that God knew everything there was to know about him (even before birth) David noted that “all the days ordained for me were written in your book, before one of them ever came to be.” (Psalm 139:16).

That sounds like purpose to me and God has accounted for every one of our days! That leaves me speechless! God knows the time and the seasons for every one our lives and he knows the day we each will take our last breath. Those are sobering thoughts to me.

Ironically, in the midst of writing this post, I had to be rushed to the emergency room of the hospital because of a severe asthma attack. It was not the first time I had experienced this, but yet

each time it happens, it takes me to a place of reflection. Perhaps because when you’re fighting to take the next breath, your mind tends to focus only on things in your life that mattered up to that point.

The doctors were able to get my airways cleared with an injection that hurt like hell and began the nebulization process. During the rounds of nebulization, which was on a time schedule, the nurse had to miss the set time for my last round, because an emergency had developed with one of the patients who had been admitted into the hospital. It was a Code Blue and every doctor and nurse who were working in the emergency room were called in to help save that person’s life.

I did not know that immediately and began to get frustrated with how long the nurse was taking to get back to me to give me my last does of oral medication, so that I could hopefully go home and get some sleep.

It was the security guard, who was working at the door, who finally explained to my wif

e and I that all of the doctors and nurses were busy trying to save a patient’s life. Needless to say, my whole attitude changed. While my life was on the line a few hours earlier, I had been stabilized and on the road to recovery, and in a back room somewhere, someone was losing his/her life.

I immediately thought back to the first part of this blog which I had begun writing earlier before my dilemma. Lord, teach me to number my days! So, I relaxed and found myself whispering a prayer for God to save the life of someone I had not known.

Needless to say, getting back to this piece, I did so with new eyes and a deeper understanding of just how fragile life is for us. The Apostle James in his epistle compared life to a vapor (or a mist), that appears for a second and then vanishes away. (James 4:14)

The fragility of life should prompt us to number our days. It’s become almost impossible for me to attend a funeral service without considering the fact that that would be my final end some day as well.

Am I suggesting that we live life only serious, locked away in prayer and fastin

g, seeking Gods will and don’t do anything but that? Of course not. Not even God would recommend that. If that was all he wished for us, then why did he take so much time in forming this earth and putting in it such beauty and have nature work with such a rhythm, which, by the way has only been interrupted by mankind?

God gave us life to enjoy. Yes, as Believers our main goals are to pray, fast, spend time with our Heavenly Father, seek and fulfill his Will. For me, there is no greater joy in life. But, I too enjoy many of the things the world offers – like the opportunity to travel and see such beauty of the world, great food, a good movie, family gatherings, friends to hang out with, attending ball games, theatre plays and so many other things. But I take those things in stride, knowing that they are not the final culmination of my life.

Yet, my Heavenly Father has given them to me to enjoy while I’m here, living out his purpose. All of these things have a place in our lives, but we must live a balanced life. This too is a part of learning how to number our days.

Growing up as a teen and preparing my mind to enter the world of work, career and adulthood, I was convinced that life was like a game of Monopoly, where at the end, the one who had the most land, hotels and money won. This competitive, cruel, selfish world in which we live feed such a mindset.

But I have come to realize that if that indeed was the purpose for life, then why are we not allowed to carry with us into death and beyond, all the things we have attained in this life? If life is about all we have achieved, accomplished and gained, then why can’t we take our possessions with us? It only seems fair.

However, we know that all of the things we work for and accumulate during our life time, others will squabble over the moment we close our eyes. And the sad part is, they may not even take care of it like you took care of it. Probably because they may not have a clue of how hard you worked to obtain what you had.

One of the richest men in history, who had enjoyed every aspect of life, groaned when he summed up the meaning of it all at the end of life’s journey. King Solomon had learned the need to number one’s days.

“I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun. This too is futile. So my heart began to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun.

“For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun? Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile. Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God.” Ecclesiastes 3:18 - 24

In these days of uncertainty, Lord, teach us to number our days.