One of my favorite scriptures is perhaps the first one ever recorded—inscribed on a mud tablet or written on papyrus, "Teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart (Psalm 90:12 NRSV). Wow, what a statement for us as we begin 2009!. Newsweek commented on it, in relationship to the need for people to use environmentally friendly transportation.
For anyone who's ever watched two empty buses sail by as he ran toward a stop, then waited an hour before packing into the next, relief may be just around the corner. With San Francisco area inventor Ken Schmier's BusTracker, a $20-$50 pager will provide up-to-the-minute info on where the next bus is, its ETA, even your odds of getting a seat. Says Schmier, "People can understand when there's a failure in the system, but they'd rather take a taxi in the first minute than the last minute."
So often, we resent every minute of which we don’t have control, then we waste the ones in our
domain. Neither does “accounting for our days” mean running like a greyhound to cover all our bases. Sometimes it’s far more memorable.
One father wrote that when he was on an outing with his family, his wife implored their daughter Molly to hurry up because there was "no time to stop and blow dandelions." In response, Molly raised what may be for a child -- perhaps for all of us -- the major philosophical issue of the new year. "Mommy," she said, "what is time for?" **
Well, what is your time for? How do you think you should use it? Does it have any import on your eternal destiny? “Lord, teach us to count our days, that we may gain a wise heart.”
**--John L. Locke, The De-Voicing of Society: Why We Don't Talk to Each Other Anymore (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), 172.
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