My seven-year plan--tentative, as I am learning to live life with a pencil, not ink
Where did I come up with the idea of a seven-year plan? From Moses, who wrote these words in what we refer to as Psalm 90: "As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is labor and sorrow, for soon it is gone and we fly away....So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom....Let the favor of the Lord be upon us; and confirm to us the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands" (v.v. 10,12, 17).
Why the idea of living with pencil, not ink? From James, who wrote in his letter what we know as chapter 4, verses 13-17: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.' But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin."
I wrote a more full draft of this on 12 November. Then last night, we got a phone call informing us that a friend, Jean Mastin Lewis, whom we had reconnected with five years ago this month, was on her death bed. We went, not knowing we would be there when she left this residence for her permanent one. After the singing of many hymns by those present and the reading of some Scripture, it pleased the Lord to call her into His presence at 10:30 p.m. Jean turned 81 last March.
Take this to heart. Count both your days and your blessings.
"As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is labor and sorrow, for soon it is gone and we fly away....So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom....Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm to us the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands" (Ps, 90:10,12,17).
Where did I come up with the idea of a seven-year plan? From Moses, who wrote these words in what we refer to as Psalm 90: "As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is labor and sorrow, for soon it is gone and we fly away....So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom....Let the favor of the Lord be upon us; and confirm to us the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands" (v.v. 10,12, 17).
Why the idea of living with pencil, not ink? From James, who wrote in his letter what we know as chapter 4, verses 13-17: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.' But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin."
I wrote a more full draft of this on 12 November. Then last night, we got a phone call informing us that a friend, Jean Mastin Lewis, whom we had reconnected with five years ago this month, was on her death bed. We went, not knowing we would be there when she left this residence for her permanent one. After the singing of many hymns by those present and the reading of some Scripture, it pleased the Lord to call her into His presence at 10:30 p.m. Jean turned 81 last March.
Take this to heart. Count both your days and your blessings.
"As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is labor and sorrow, for soon it is gone and we fly away....So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom....Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm to us the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands" (Ps, 90:10,12,17).
posted by Ebeth | 5:26 PM
1 Comments:
I enjoyed you blog. I think often about how much time I have with my life and what I can hope to do. Since I have no idea what plan God has for me I feel the urgency to get things done. One of the things I am doing is leaving a written record for my children and grandchildren of what I feel and think about things.
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