Teach us to count our days

Good afternoon brothers and sisters,
Appropriately, today's reading is an invitation to consider our own mortality and our limits. The end of one year and the beginning of another are a great opportunity to reflect on our life and on where God might be leading us. As you take some time to reflect, let God teach you to number your days so that you gain a wise heart.

Blessings for a spiritually blessed new year,
Sam


Psalm 90:1-14
¹Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
²Before the mountains were brought forth, 
or ever you had formed the earth and the world, 
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
³You turn us back to dust, and say,
“Turn back, you mortals.”
⁴For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday
when it is past, or like a watch in the night.
⁵You sweep them away; they are like a dream, 
like grass that is renewed in the morning;
⁶in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
⁷For we are consumed by your anger;
by your wrath we are overwhelmed.
⁸You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
⁹For all our days pass away under your wrath;
our years come to an end like a sigh.
¹⁰The days of our life are seventy years,
or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
¹¹Who considers the power of your anger?
Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
¹²So teach us to count our days
that we may gain a wise heart.
¹³Turn, O Lord! How long?
Have compassion on your servants!
¹⁴Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

ending and beginning

Good morning brothers and sisters,
Our readings for the next couple of days invite us to reflect on the end of one year and the beginning of another. This passage from Ecclesiastes considers the changes and seasons of life. Sometimes we find comfort that there is a time for everything; other times we are frustrated that that the time for things we enjoy doesn't last forever. Human life is always filled with change; some good, some bad. Our lives are full of busyness, but it doesn't always take us anywhere. God gives us a sense of time, a sense of past and future, a sense that there is something beyond our busyness and the cycles of our lives. And our life doesn't last forever; one day we will each die. How is God calling you to use this New Year's time to reflect on the direction your life is moving? How is God calling you to change in the New Year so you can make the most of the time you've been given?

God bless,
Sam

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 7a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.


9What gain have the workers from their toil? 10I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. 11He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.