words words words

“You are my God.  My times are in your hands.”  Psalm 31:14-15

Are these words comforting or disturbing to you?  Do you feel tyrannized and victimized by time?  Do you get to the end of a day and feel disappointed by all that you tried to accomplish but didn’t get done?  And what about “me time”?  Did you have enough of that? 

There’s a saying that as you get older the days get longer and the years get shorter.  When I was younger, I asked God to help me hallow the ordinary moments of my day, so that if I was doing a repetitive task like laundry or really needed a nap, I could feel him as present in those activities as in more noble endeavors.  But as I age, I can feel the tyranny of time as the years speed by.  I have plenty of time to accomplish anything I want in a day. There’s never a DAY when I feel like I’ve run out of time, but when I look ahead at the paucity of YEARS left to me compared to the years behind, I wonder if I’m using the remainder of my time wisely. 

Praise God for His Word, which constantly, insistently provides me with the gift of words. Communication, stories, beautiful words are of paramount power to me.  It is words, God’s Word and THE Word made flesh that rescue me from the oblivion of meaningless time, shining light into all the blackest crannies of my time-wasting soul.   

Words redeem time for me. Words are accessible to me even as my body slows down.  The words I read, write and speak can still inspire and encourage.  I can make the most of my time by physically writing down my impressions of how yesterday went and what my plans are for the day ahead. I can funnel the words I’ve written through the words I read in Scripture.  What pops out are often prayers of thanksgiving written in a journal…my way of numbering my days. 

If you haven’t tried journaling, I encourage you to do it today.  And if you haven’t yet bought Meredith Barnes’ book “All the Time: Daily Devotions Finding Faith in the Everyday Moments”, it could make an excellent prompt for you to number your days as well.

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

Love, Liz