Today, we have two scriptures. The first is from Psalm 90:12 which says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom”. Moses wrote these words after leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and serving as their leader in the desert for many years. He is encouraging the people to make the most of every day and try to make wise decisions because we never truly know how many days we have left.
The second scripture is a passage from Luke 16-21, which says:
And Jesus told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
The point of Jesus’ story is that this man will never truly be happy, no matter how much wealth he accumulates. He will always strive for more and, in doing so, will be distracted from loving God and loving people.
One of our recent lessons focused on storing up treasure in heaven vs. on earth. Today’s scriptures and lesson take that message one step further to emphasize the importance of doing it now. For example:
- Are you planning to spend more time with your family and friends once you are more established in your career and/or have more financial stability? Don’t wait – spend more time with them now.
- Are you going to focus on giving more time and/or money to your favorite charities once your schedule is more manageable? Don’t wait – give more now.
- Is your goal to get in better shape and eat/drink more responsibly “soon”? Don’t wait – make those changes now.
- Have you been meaning to spend more time praying and reading the Bible? Don’t wait – put it on the calendar and guard that time.
Each of our days are numbered, so here are a few questions to help us do more to make each day count:
- Since there are a limitless number of “good” things we can start doing, how would you advise someone to do more to make each day count without getting stuck in analysis paralysis?
- If part of the answer is that we should stop doing certain things, what are one or two things you might like to give up?
- If you can identify a couple of things to give up, what then would be something you would like to move up your priority list?
- If the core message of today’s discussion is so simple, why do we struggle with it?
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