Triple C News - January 6 2023
Hey, everyone!
What an amazing New Year’s Eve we had!
It was almost like Christmas Eve when I was a kid!
On Christmas Eve, we’d go to bed about 9:30 or 9:45, and wake up in the morning and…just like magic! Christmas was here! And on New Year’s Eve, Tina and I went to bed about 9:30 or 9:45 and woke up in the morning and…just like magic! New Year’s Day is here!
I remember one New Year”s Day that was different from all the others we’d spent together.
January 1, 1980…
We took off in a U-Haul truck (I was driving that one) and a blue 1963 Plymouth Valiant (Tina was driving it with its 4 speed stick shift on the steering column), with a baby in the back seat of the Valiant and another baby in the driver’s seat (actually, in the driver!)… and we headed north to Winona Lake, Indiana and the beginning of seminary. We didn’t know what was ahead for us. We didn’t exactly know why we were going except that God had made a way and I wanted to study the Scriptures with all my heart and prepare for something…
After we skidded and slid into our new Hoosier world and that first month of shivering, job hunting (found one bagging groceries), classes, and sloshing through snow, messy diapers, and Greek conjugations, there were moments when we wondered…
“What are we doing here!?”
But that first semester, I took a class in the Book of Psalms.
And I discovered the 90th one.
“There it is! That’s what we’re doing here!”
After saying that in this short life you have on earth, you can sort of… maybe… all things being equal…possibly… count on seventy years down here (eighty, if you’re exceptionally stout) before you “fly away”, Moses prays this:
“So teach us to number our days so that we can acquire a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12)
My prof said that he had calculated how many days he had ’til he was seventy and every day marked one off!
He'd say, “That’s one less day I have to do what God has for me to do!”
Wow!
I only have one life!
I only have one chance!
I only have these days!
To do something important…
To do what God has for me…
To do what Jesus showed us to do…
To love, serve, give ourselves away.
To live my days so that I have no regrets at the end…
If I waste one of my days…
by nursing a stinky attitude…
or making stupid choices…
or caring too much about things that won’t matter when it’s all done…
I can never have that day back!
When I first met this Psalm, I had about 16,250 days until I would turn seventy.
Counting from today, January 5, 2023 I only have 579 left!
I hope I’ve spent most of those 15,641 days…from that long ago day in January to today…well.
I definitely remember some that got away from me.
Thankfully, Paul said it’s good to forget what’s past and press on!
‘Cause this is our only chance! We only have a limited number of days!
I probably have less than you!
I might only have 579!
As a matter of fact, while I’m writing this, I’m still in my PJ’s!
Gotta go!