Teach Us to Number Our Days

Author: Rev. Nikki Brown Rice
May 27, 2022

There is a song that has been stuck in my head of late, and it goes like this:

“Teach us to number our days, 
that we may apply our hearts to your ways
O! Teach us to number our days
With wisdom and grace, wisdom and grace
Wisdom and grace, wisdom and grace.”

We only get one shot at this folks. One life here in this place and this time.

Many of the circumstances of our lives are out of our control, and this can be uncomfortable and cause us frustration. We don’t choose our parents, our place of upbringing, we don’t choose the status we are born into or lack thereof. We don’t choose the color of our skin, our orientation, the first language we will learn, or the sturdiness of our bodies and bones– we inherit so much. The weight of that inheritance is a gift and a burden.

Yet, we all have a choice, everyday, every new set of 24 hours, to be faithful. To seek wisdom and grace. To number our days as if they were our last because this too is out of our control, for the most part. And with the end in mind, and the fact that we don’t know when the end of our days will be, what are we waiting for? What are we waiting for to love? To learn? To seek justice? Why do we wait to ask for help, or to ask the burning question, or to engage in the world around us in ways that we have been meaning to for some time now but we are just busy?

Teach us to number our days, Lord, and let us number them with wisdom and grace. Let us be kind to ourselves and to others, AND let us have the wisdom to know what is important and to give ourselves to it. Let us follow your voice, where it speaks and where it leads through so many people and ways.

Teach us to number our days with wisdom and grace that we may apply our hearts to your ways of love, of justice, of peace for the sake of your glory here and to come. Amen.

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