16

July

Measured in minutes – life?

“Life isn’t measured in minutes.  It’s measured in moments.  It’s not the length of days that really matters.  [Life’s] the stewardship of moments. . . .  In other words, make each day count.”- Mark Batterson

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”- Psalm 96:12 (NIV)

“Preach [and live] as if Jesus was crucified yesterday, rose from the dead today, and is returning tomorrow.”- Martin Luther

Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 18 of A Trip around the Sun with this question: So how do you number your days?  Most significantly, Mark sees a literal dimension to the psalmist’s exhortation to number our days.  As a result, Mark literally numbers his blessings in his journal — along with his days.

Furthermore, in a figurative sense we number our days in keeping our eyes on eternity.  Because we share a common destiny and will one day stand before the throne of God, we need to live every moment in the light of eternity.

However, as seventeenth-century philosopher Blaise Pascal noted, such moments create a challenge, because:

“Our imagination so magnifies this present existence by the power of continual reflection on it, and so attenuates eternity by not thinking of it at all, that we reduce eternity to nothingness and expand a mere nothing to an eternity.”

Put another way, when we think so much about the present and so little about eternity, we achieve his result.  We turn eternity into nothing and nothing into eternity.

Certainly, Pastor Batterson stresses, only God knows the allotted number of your days.  But it remains your job to redeem that time.  And while you don’t get to choose the final outcome of your life, you do choose your outlook. Therefore, Mark urges, choose gratitude, adventure, and risk.  Choose life.

As the apostle Paul wrote in his Letter to the Ephesians:

Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.”

Today’s question: Do you see life as measured in minutes or in moments?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Intangible things = legacy”

About the author 

Dave Henning

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