MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24 

“Teach us how short our lives really are so that we may be wise.” Ps 90:12 NCV 

Author Peter Senge tells of a time when he was leading a seminar at the World Bank, and an employee named Fred revealed that he had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Fred was given only a few months to live. So he did just that he started living as if there was no tomorrow. Like anyone else who gets a devastating diagnosis, Fred went through a period of denial. “Then something amazing happened,” Fred said. “I simply stopped doing everything that wasn’t essential, that didn’t matter.” Important things became even more important, and unimportant things became even more unimportant. A few months had passed when a friend told Fred he should seek a second opinion. His new doctor told him that he had been misdiagnosed. Fred had a very rare but very curable disease. When the doctor delivered the news, Fred cried like a baby. Why? “Because I was afraid my life would go back to the way it used to be!” Of course, our“wake up call” doesn’t necessarily have to come in the form of a tragedy. It can also be a midlife crisis. When you hit your forties, you start counting down. But the ticktock of your body clock isn’t a negative thing. David wrote: “Our lifetime is seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years. Teach us how short our lives really are so that we may be wise” (Ps 90:10, 12 NCV). If you’re wise, you will: (1) Make each day count. (2) Live like there is notomorrow. (3) Do things that will live on after you go.