Do the Numbers

Do the Numbers

“Seventy…or…eighty years…pass quickly.”     Ps 90:10 NCV

Our souls aren’t hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Those things create as many problems as they solve. Our souls are hungry for meaning. We want our lives to matter. The Psalmist writes: “Our lifetime is seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty.” Eighty years is just under 30,000 days. Think about that in financial terms: $30,000 will buy you a car or the down payment on a house. It’s not that much money—and it’s not that much time. None of us knows how many years we’ve left, but we know how many we’ve been given till now. If you were to draw a line and add them up, eternally speaking, what would you have to show for your life?



Job said, “My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle” (Job 7:6 NLT); “What’s left…races off too fast” (Job 9:25 TM). Bryan Wilkerson says: “Teens count the number of friends they have, the number of colleges they get into. College students count grade points…credit hours…how many beers they can drink…Adults measure success by the number of bedrooms in their house, cars in the garage…or the yield on their investments. Most make two mistakes…they think they’ve so much [time] they can afford to waste it, or so little time they can’t possibly do something significant so they don’t try. Our days are like suitcases—all the same size—but some can pack more into them than others.



‘Fools idle away their time’ (See Pr 12:11 NLT). Numbering your days means offering them to God and seeking His direction for your life.”


(authored by Dr. Don Wilton, First Baptist Church, Spartanburg, SC)