Number your Days

Speaking of gray hair and age and time, I'll turn the spotlight on myself for a moment here.

I've been thinking about that as just a few days ago I turned 70. And that has a way of just kind of focusing your attention and clarifying a few things when you... I thought 60 was bad enough.

But 70 is far more interesting. I'm glad to get to 70. Don't get me wrong. Every birthday is a good day, no matter how many that might be, right? But I never thought, being a kid in the church in the early 1960s, I never thought I'd see my 70th birthday for a number of reasons. Those of you that were around in that time, you know why. I don't need to rehearse all of that, but here we are. But I say I made it to 70 in spite of that plus just a lot of the grace of God to keep me out of a lot of other mischief and mistakes and things that could have ended things earlier. And so it's good to get to 70. But as I said, it tends to focus your mind. As we know, I realize I've got more years behind me than I've got ahead of me.

And that's okay. We'll make the most of those as well. We've all heard the sayings that youth is wasted on the young, right? We've heard that one and understand that. The German phrase we say, too soon old and too late smart, is another one. To me, the quote from the great American philosopher Bob Dylan, though, is the best one. When he wrote and his song, he said, I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now. That's my favorite line to go back to. I was a whole lot older back then. I'm younger than that now. You think about that. It may apply in some ways. I'm glad I made decisions in my life when I was younger that have kept me in the straight and narrow of God's way and God's Word. But as I've grown older, I think I have grown a bit wiser and understanding and a bit more patient. And that, to me, has made me a little bit more, I think, a whole lot more younger in terms of how I look at life, people, and especially young people having opportunity to teach at ABC and to work around them.

Turn, if you will, over to Psalm 90. In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm going to talk about growing old and right in my wheelhouse now.

Psalm 70 is one that we know quite well, as we have quoted it in many different ways. I'll just read part of this here in Psalm 90. I said 70. I'm sorry, Psalm 90. That's part of what old age does. It causes you to have temporary memory loss. Psalm 90. And let's go right to verse 10. I'm going to read this out of the New Living Translation. You can follow along. Psalm 90 and verse 10. 70 years, it says, are given to us. And some even live to 80. I hope if time goes on, I hope I see 80. That'll be good too. I hope that I can even know that I'm 80, I guess.

But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble. Even the best years are filled with pain and trouble. There are challenges, tests, trials, unexpected events that impact our lives, that of our families, and other matters that we don't always have control over. Right? We look back and we understand that. And even the best are filled with pain and trouble. Soon they disappear.

It says, and we fly away. Our life then comes to a close. And it does happen quickly. It just does. And we all will share in looking back and realizing where have the years gone, thinking about that. I remember coming up here at age 21 or two, just before turning 22, and Debbie and I getting married in downtown Akron at the Northern Building, and then heading south toward North Carolina for where we lived at the time.

And it doesn't seem it's been 48 years. It doesn't, 49 years now. And 48 years. And it's 49 years, isn't it? That's right. Okay. Yeah, it's 48 years. Anyway, boy, you got to get that one right, guys. But they fly away. And before you know it, verse 11, he says, who can comprehend the power of your anger? Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve. God's judgment is sure, and it is strong, and it is there.

And then he says in verse 12, teach us to realize the brevity of life so that we may grow in wisdom. And in verse 12, I do think the New King James is a bit better. Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. So what I'd like to talk about today, numbering our days so that we might gain a heart of wisdom and reflect a little bit about what scriptures tells us about these things and in a sense, kind of share with you a little bit of my personal thoughts and reflections at turning 70 and looking at this and wanting to gain from what the scripture says to us.

As God says, the psalmist here to God, teach us to number our days that we might gain a heart of wisdom. Now, I knew my audience here in North Canton today. We're all 70 in that neighborhood. Let's just put it that way. But I also know that there are a number of young adults here that are nowhere near that time. And you should listen very carefully, even if you're not 70, even if you're not 50 or 40. I think what I say can benefit all of us because you certainly do want to number your days, even if you're 25 or 32 or whatever it might be, and many decisions and life experiences are stretching ahead.

I did mention the joy of working at ABC and every year getting a fresh crop of young adults in from church families all over the place who come eager to learn about the Bible and wanting to learn from us, the faculty at ABC, and to just go through the Scriptures. It is a joy, but they're always a younger group of either late teens, young 20s, when they take this opportunity a year out of their life to come. I decided here just this week, I subscribed to Audible Books, and they had a sale, so I bought a couple of books to listen to.

And Debbie and I started listening to one while driving up yesterday called The Defining Decade. It was written by a psychologist who has had extensive experience talking to young people and helping them get through their 20s, which she defines as the defining decade of your life and helping them to maneuver and navigate that, and more importantly, not waste the decade and make right decisions to set them on a good course for the remainder of their life.

And it's been very helpful, and as I get into instruction and counseling with young people in that age group at ABC every year, I figured that would give me a little bit of an insight into some things. So this, hopefully, can impact all of us here, regardless of our age, because we all do need to learn to measure our days so that we might gain a heart of wisdom to recognize the brevity of life so that we can live wisely and well at any point in our life—in our 20s, 40s, 70s, even into our 80s—as we continue to experience the gift and the joy of life.

And it truly is. We say it's good to wake up above ground, to be vertical. We have all these things that we greet each other with, and we talk about, and we kind of chock-a-lab, but we all know, yeah, it is. It's better than the alternative in many different ways. And as long as we have our health and our mind and can worship God, obey God, navigate life, interact with each other, our families, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, we have this admonition before us to measure our days and to use them well and wisely and understand the gift of the days that we have.

The Bible, of course, has a great deal to say to those who do grow old in the community of the church and are keepers of the ways and the traditions of the ways of the past. This has been a particular interest for me for a number of years as I've looked at what the Scriptures talk about in terms of the wisdom of those who have been around for a long time and what God has to say about that.

I developed a talk that I gave at some of our regional conferences and training sessions at the office to our ministry and even our trainees that we have been working with over the recent years based on the concept that we read in the Bible about a group of people that are called elders, the elders at the gate.

You will see this term in the Old Testament, especially in the book of Deuteronomy, where the cities of ancient Israel had this body of older people in the communities who were called elders at the gate. The gate, as that term is used in the Old Testament, is nothing more than the equivalent of our courthouse.

We all know our county courthouse, where it is and what you go there for. You go there to pay your taxes, to register deeds, and to even go to court if you need to. The courthouse is where the business of the county or the city is transacted. That's the equivalent of the gate of the Old Testament. The elders are the magistrates, the clerks, the people charged with the responsibility of the the welfare and the continuity of the community. They have the experience. They know the customs. They know the state laws, the county statutes and everything, and how it is done to keep the community going. In the Old Testament, when you read about these individuals, you actually see actually it's well laid out throughout Deuteronomy and even into the book of Judges and Ruth, you see what these people were to do. They were the clerk of courts.

If there was a land matter, a property matter that had to be dealt with, that's where you did it.

If there was a problem within a family with, let's say, a young person that was a juvenile delinquent, not doing what he should, the people were instructed to bring him to the elders at the gate. There were some pretty tough things that were dealt out there when you get delved into the law. Marriages and contractual matters were the responsibility of those and the tribunals and the judges. That's where it was all done. Even in the idea, it's carried over in the New Testament. In the New Testament, we read especially in 1 Timothy chapter 5. Let's turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 5 and we'll just briefly note within the church setting, which was not a civil state or community like the Old Testament, but Paul did give instruction to Timothy about how to set up and manage the congregation. It was very interesting instruction in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 19 where he talks about the matters of the let's see here.

Oh boy, I've got my wrong scripture.

Hate it when that happens. That's what happens when you get to 60.

And 70.

Okay, it's verse 9. I'm sorry, verse 9. I said 19. In verse 9 of 1 Timothy chapter 5, Paul says to Timothy, Do not let a widow under 60 years old be taken into the number. Now, what was this number? We don't know exactly. It was an order or a grouping of women in a congregation that had you had to be 60 to be a part of. It goes on to tell why. So it was for the older women. My point in turning here is to show that the elders at the gate of the Old Testament and this grouping of women in the New Testament that are older speak to God's intent of using the older within the community to make sure that things are done decently and in order and maintained. Because these are the ones who know everybody. They have been through a lot of experiences of life. They should know the Word of God. They should know the law of God and be able to teach it, live it by example, either male or female. And Paul says, don't take a woman that's under 60 into the number and not unless she's been the wife of one man. Well-reported for good works. If she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work. So this is obviously a woman who has taken care of the needs of people in the congregation at many different stages and levels. That's what it is referring to here. Then it says in verse 11, refuse the younger widows. For when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ they desire to marry, having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith. Now, without getting into what seems to be harsh words from Paul and abeliorating all of that, I don't have the time to do all of that. Essentially what Paul is saying, a younger woman has got children, other needs and matters there that they're not at that point in life where they can devote themselves selflessly to what is needed from someone 60, 70 or older there because those things are past in their life.

And that's really what he's pointing to. Not that any younger woman is not qualified or disqualified in some way. That's not really his point. He's pointing to the need for the congregations and the community to have and to revere, to respect those who have been around who know the lay of the land and know the Word of God who have experienced, in this case, beyond the matters of youth and have learned. And they have what we call the institutional knowledge.

The institutional knowledge. I can look at some of you knowing who you are and how long you've been around the Church of God. You know people. You know what has gone on here 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 50 years ago. Because you've grown up in the Church. You know the names, the episodes, the stories. You certainly know the Word of God. You are faithful to that. You have seen people come and be a part of the Church, live out their lives and die. People marry. People divorce.

And all of the matters of life. You've seen that. I've seen that from the perspective of a minister. And we have this body of institutional knowledge. And that's a good thing. You know, there's a saying that when an old person dies, a library is destroyed. When an old person dies, a library is destroyed. In other words, there are things that they know up here that aren't written down.

Because of their experience, their conversations, the things they've lived. And it's gone. I have not perfected or seen a way that we've perfected to capture all of that. We had one of our older ministers, Ken Martin, die a couple of weeks ago unexpectedly. And a huge library burned there. And it happens here with our membership and across the country. And those are things that we respect.

And we certainly need to appreciate and tap into when we while we have the opportunity.

And those of you that are those libraries, to be sure that you are able to impart where you have an opportunity to the young and to each other, the traditions, the history, the stories, the knowledge that keeps the church on target, on track, in a right loving, kind way, with a nudge here, with a comment there, a note there that does that. That's how we knit together the church at this time. Something that is always needed. And even more so as we go through difficult times in the world, as we are in a sense a condensed version of experiences. Let me put it that way.

To look at this, I think as God looks at it, we've all been condensed by our experiences to the essence of the best, if you will, of what God has refined within us through the years.

And think about it that way. And that, to me, is the correct way and the positive way.

In Psalm 90, that's where I wanted to turn to Psalm 90.

It says, It says, The glory of the young is their strength, and the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old. The glory of the young is their strength, and the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old. Think about that. Think about that.

A young person has energy and ability to move forward. The gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old. That is the wisdom of age. When we understand that we have our opportunity to make our greatest contribution with the last years of our life, it is again a clarifying opportunity for us to focus on. To our fellow brethren in the church, to our families.

Years ago, I had a very wise member of one of my congregations who had four or five children.

He was probably in his 70s when he told me this, and I was much younger than today.

He told me one time, he said, You never stopped raising your children. You never stopped raising your children. I didn't know exactly what he meant at that time, other than to agree with him and say, I didn't realize that because we were still raising our children at that time.

But since they have gone on to become parents themselves and go through experiences, we still work with them, I realize in many ways I'm still raising my children.

We talk every week, and our oldest is going through a difficult challenge in his life right now.

So I make sure that we talk on a regular basis to see where he is as he's going through what's happening in his life right now. I'm still having to parent my adult children and pass on wisdom, but frankly just do a whole lot of listening. And that's the way it works, whether it's with our children or grandchildren, to our church and to our community.

Point one of what I'd like to pass along to us here today is to help us to find something at this point in our life that will save us. I say find something that will save you.

When you get to this point in life, as we know, this is the time really to begin to commune with God. And that's the starting point to that salvation. When you get to this age of 70 and beyond, you have learned to rely on God more than you did when you were younger. That's what it means to the glory of the young is their strength, but sometimes when we're young we rely more on our strength than we do relying upon the strength of God. And it's when we get older that we learn to commune with God and not on our own strength. And we learn to commit our ways more to God than we do to ourselves or maybe even to each other. I think sometimes we learn the limits of how we can rely on each other. There are times that we need the fellowship, we need the conversation, and the encouragement, and we need the prayers. But we come to realize that we can only do so much for someone else and they can only do so much for us. And it comes down to the reality of what God can do for us. And this is the time to commune with Him. And when we do that, we are then experiencing something that comes with age that is tremendously golden. It's truly golden.

There is something that is said back in 2 Samuel chapter 1 about King David that I've often thought about. In 2 Samuel chapter 2 and in verse 1, David has been anointed king. And it says in verse 1, it happened after this, that David inquired of the Lord saying, Shall I go up to any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, Go up. And David said, Where shall I go up? And he said to Hebron. Now this is one of those scriptures that if you just read over, you think, Okay, God said, Shall I do this? And then shall I do that? But when you really stop and break it down, David took the time to consult with God. And that was his first consultation. That was the basis of his plan. It wasn't that he consulted with God after he had decided what he wanted to do, which so often we've done and we will do in our lives. We'll decide, I want to buy this. I want to go here. I want to move there. And then we pray about it.

And then we think, God's given us the answer because we've already got the desire. And we do it and we think, well, I prayed about it and maybe it worked out and maybe it didn't.

And that often happens when we are younger and inexperienced.

David sets us an example here where he's the leader. He could boldly and brashly say, this is what we're going to do. But at this point in his life, he was relying on God at a point where he said, shall I go up to the cities of Judah? And he said, go. And then he said, where? Hebron. I look at this sometimes when we get involved in our work in the church and we wonder, are we doing it right this way? Should we do something else different? Working on the Council of Elders, we are responsible for this marvelous document of wisdom called the strategic plan. A strategic plan is a good thing if it works. And every company in business makes a strategic plan. The church has a strategic plan. It's quite involved. And sometimes I wonder if we've tried too hard. Sometimes we think that if we get just this word or this phrase or this sentence just right, that we'll have God's blessing or we'll know what to do. And maybe it will and maybe it won't.

But then I read the scriptures and I see that David's strategic plan was to say to God, shall I go up? And by the way, where should I go up? Where shall I go up? And then he, it seems, made his plan to go from there. And I think the point of this is it is important that we detect what God's will is. And the more we live in life, the more we go through experiences and we see what works and doesn't work and we come to a certain point and again, it happens with years, we come to the point where we realize that it's better to go to God more often than we go someplace else. How does that work on a practical level for us in the church at times? Well, we all have opinions. We all see things that we think might work better if it was done this way, our way, and sometimes there are real problems. But we may not always be able to be in a position to have either the responsibility, the authority, delegated responsibility to make the change. And something really wrong might go on for a period of time or some problem might persist. And being human, we will talk about it. We might gossip about it. We might complain about it. And sometimes that can become a problem in a cell within the church. And we might be a part of an area that is creating a bit of consternation. Just use that term among others. And when you learn through a number of those, maybe the best thing is just to go directly to God and take it to Him for the solutions, that that's the best way to do it. That we do what David did and we just take it to God rather than to each other. We put more time talking to God about it than we might be talking to each other in sometimes not always productive ways.

Wisdom and experience teaches us how and when to do that. And ultimately, to do it more with God and put it there and let God show us His solution. And when we do that, we sometimes then release our pride. That evaporates. And when we are able to listen and to detect what God's will and purpose is, we can come closer to, I think, God's decision for us. I say find something that saves you.

Focus on service and learn to walk with God now and to offer yourself to God and let Him show you more than He has in the past. Another point to consider for us all measuring our days is to develop compassion and empathy. And sometimes, again, it may be when we're older that we're able to do that better. But the younger we can do that in our life, the better we will be. And it may be nothing more difficult than just asking God for new things to love. Last night, I went through the message of Revelation 2, the message of the church to Ephesus. And you all know that the one thing God Christ brought out that the church at Ephesus needed to work on was they had lost their first love. They told them to remember and to repent and to regain that first love. And sometimes we need to ask God for new things to love.

And that may be the pathway to restoring that first love in our own life, according to what that Scripture says. Compassion and empathy. Big factors right now.

I was talking to my son, the doctor, who works in medical care just a week ago. And in his hospital near Indianapolis, their beds have been filling up because of the new surge of COVID. And he told me that it was beginning with this wave to begin to really wear down the medical staff, the nurses and the doctors, so much so that they had to have a seminar on empathy for the medical personnel working in the units. A seminar on empathy. It's important that medical people, nurses especially, maintain a high level not only of compassion but empathy where they can not only compassionately care for somebody but really begin to empathize and understand the pain, the suffering, and in a sense have that more of an emotional connection and go the extra mile of care that can make a difference sometimes in a hospital situation. But because of the strain of what has happened and the way it has been approached by people, it is beginning to make strains upon those that are in the health care field, so much so that they have to have talks about empathy for health care workers. This is what we are seeing with this is beginning to grind away in many different angles and ways in our community. We need to be careful that among ourselves in the church, we check ourselves no matter what our approach and our opinion might be about any aspect of this COVID situation and make sure that we maintain a right balance and an approach of compassion and empathy and understanding. And be very, very careful how we develop our thoughts and our processes and the way we view everything and everybody. Ultimately, it is that brotherly love for one another that we're going to have to maintain at a very high standard and not let it be ground away by the circumstances of the world around us especially. So ask God for new things to love as a way of measuring your days and gaining a heart of wisdom. Another point to consider is that when you have no agenda, you have nothing to lose, and you will have more of yourself to offer to other people. You get to a certain point in life and your agendas are gone.

You realize you're not going to be this or to be that. Years ago, I had a couple of guys pull up at one of our homes to move us in one of the many moves you make in the ministry. And I think it was a united or national van line driver pulled up in front of our house and a couple of grizzled-looking guys that were truck drivers and movers started loading us onto our furniture onto his truck. And it took about a day to do it. I remember going in and out of the house and you start developing a conversation with guys like that. And one of them started telling me about he liked the life of the road. He liked being a truck driver, like moving people around, driving all up the roads of the country. And he said, yeah, I realized very young in my life that I wasn't going to be like Roy Rogers or Gene Autry and ride off into the sunset with a pretty girl on the back of my horse. And I made my peace with being a truck driver driving up and down the interstate highways and just being a truck driver in life. You get to a point where you know who you are, you know what your strengths and talents are, what you're going to do, and you don't have any agenda. And whether that's in your job or in the church, you come to a point of that. And you can be then present, fully present, accounted for, and not absent, in mind or body or because you maybe have a different agenda. And we can then be there for one another.

When you get to a certain point of wisdom, you begin to take time for people.

And you seek out those that you have known, you haven't seen for a while, and you don't let the connections fade. And you recognize after a period of time that you've got to do more than just send a tweet or a text message. And sometimes you've got to pick up the phone and hear the voice. And then sometimes you've got to go beyond that. You need to sit down and have a visit, have a meal, spend time in each other's home to keep the connections alive.

And as you grow older, there are fewer connections. There just are. Friends die, mates die, children move on, move off and move on. And there are fewer connections.

And so you want to make sure that you've still got some good, solid connections.

And think about that, brethren. Think about that in your fellowship here.

Think about that with your families. Think about that with your friends that you will see in the upcoming festivals and wherever you go for the feast. And hopefully you'll have a reunion with family or friends that you haven't seen in a year, maybe a couple of years, wherever you're going, whatever you do. But stop, talk, take the time. You never know. You never know.

When you will have that last conversation with someone.

So stop and say hello. Stop and say more than just how are you doing. Ask about them. And take a few minutes. You don't know when you're going to have that last conversation with someone. I've had last conversations with people. And you think back on it, then later you realize, that was the last time I saw them. And this is what you think about what you talked about.

And you hope that it was a kind word. You hope that you showed interest. And if you didn't, you realize maybe I missed an opportunity. You just never know. And that's what it means to be present. And when you have let pride evaporate, you have more of yourself to offer to others.

Proverbs 27 in verse 10 says, never abandon a friend, either yours or your father's.

When disaster strikes, you don't have to ask your brother for assistance. It's better to go to a neighbor than to a brother who lives far away. You want to have a connection that's close by, like a neighbor. A brother who's far away can still be a brother, but for whatever reason, they're not there. So put yourself where you can give more of yourself to others.

The next point is to live with eternity in your mind. Live with eternity in your mind.

Now, if you've seen the movie Gladiator, which I've seen several times, and some of you probably have as well, I think it was about 25 or more years ago that that came out, there was a phrase in there that the Roman general said to his troops, what we do today echoes in eternity.

What we do today echoes in eternity. It's a trite phrase. I know that. But it's the trite phrases that are often the true phrases. Translated into our life, it's important that we learn to live with eternity in our mind. In other words, realize that the things we do, the decisions we make, can have long-term consequences in this life and even into the world to come. And when you begin to think like that about the decisions you make with your relationships with your people, with the goods of your life, your money, your property, you then are beginning to live with eternity in your mind. And the more we live and make those decisions based on the principles of God's Word, God will bless those decisions. And they will then be something that you can live with in eternity. About five or six years ago, we came to a point where we finally, after a number of years, settled my father's estate. Very small estate, not a lot of money.

It was a house in a small town in Missouri. And by circumstances with one of my siblings who had lived there for a number of years, was no longer able to live there and had to go into a nursing home. The home had to go on the market. And we put it up for sale and then found that three or four days before we were to close with a buyer, that there were a number of liens on the property of a considerable amount of money. And we'll go into all the details of the reason for it, that they were incurred by, in more recent years, not by my parents. And so, being the one that was the executor of the property, I had to talk with a lawyer who was representing the parties who had filed the liens and made them an offer that they could refuse. To borrow a phrase and to turn it around. I made them an offer they could refuse. And I said, look, we've got this chunk of money we're going to get from the sale. I'll offer you this. And it was less than pennies on the dollar.

Thinking, they can take the whole batch if they want.

A couple of days later, they called me back. They'll take it. I said, good. So we agreed, gave them a third of the proceeds. My sister and I took the other two thirds, a few dollars.

And settled the estate, free and clear, in my hometown. Small town, again, I say, where people know everybody else's business. And when we settled it all, I just sat down, Debbie and I talked about it and realized what we had done. We had settled a generational estate. And I said, I can now see my father when he comes up at the time of the eighth day in the Great White Throne Judgment. And I can say to my father, dad, you had this house, this estate, you left to us, and all the circumstances that I can explain to him if I need to. But I can say, dad, we settled the family business. Zeroed out. And I know what that will mean to him, because the last thing he wanted to know in his hometown was his name with a debit mark next to it.

I said, I can say to my dad, we settled the family business.

And you put things like that in not just a generational perspective, but in the perspective of eternity. Because he's going to want to know certain things beyond what it's all about, but I can really say, dad, we settled the business.

And the family was taken care of. That's how we have to live. And that's why there are elders at the gate, that's why there are older people in the community of the church to ensure that things are done in a way that is godly. That helps me to understand a beautiful story in the book of Ruth. Let's turn over to the fourth chapter of Ruth. We're not going to read the whole story of Ruth, but we can take a minute.

You know the beautiful story of Ruth, of the Moabite woman who came back to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law Naomi and fell in love with Boaz, who wanted to marry her. But they had to settle according to the land, a piece of property, and a generational matter. And in Ruth chapter 4, they go up to the gate. In verse 1, Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there, and behold, the close relative of whom Boaz had spoken came by. This was the relative who had a prior claim on the property and therefore on Ruth, as it would fall. And so Boaz said, Come aside, my friend, sit down here. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and sat down, and they all sat down. It's a court to adjudicate a matter. And they talked about Naomi. She's come back from the country of Moab. There's a sold piece of land that's belonged to our brother Limolek. I want to tell you about it. Buy it back in the presence of the people. And if you redeem it, then redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, then let me, that I may know that there is no one but you to redeem it. And I'm next after you. And on the day that you buy the field, then you must also buy it from Ruth the Moabite and perpetuate the name of the dead through the inheritance in verse 5. In other words, he had to take her too. And it would upset his family plans that he had for his family. And he said, I can't redeem it. And so he would ruin his inheritance.

And so Boaz then had the open door to buy the land and then to marry Ruth. And that's the essence of the story. And this was all according to the Word of God and the teaching going back to Deuteronomy 25 and the law of the land. And it was a community affair. And all these elders of the gate knew the people, the families, and the generations, and the stories. They knew Boaz's background. They knew Naomi's background and Elimelech's background. And this was a family matter, a community matter, a matter of the law of God. And you know what happened when it was decided? Boaz and Ruth came together, and she becomes in the lineage of King David and Jesus Christ. And it becomes a decision then that impacts eternity. Not just the generations, but when they did it right, it impacted all the way into the kingdom of God. It shows the long-term impact of the experience within the community. To number our days means that we weigh the impact of our decisions today for the future and make sure that the decisions we make are with the kingdom of God, the way of God in mind. And the older people in the church, in a community, are the key to that having to be done.

And so when it says to number our days, it means to make these decisions based on eternity. It means to be present and to offer ourselves. It means to number your days to ditch the agenda and the pride. And when we do that, then we are making decisions that God will bless in our lives, our children's lives, and far into the future. Don't dismiss yourself and your age at whatever point of life that you are in right now. Appreciate the time that you have. You've lived through all the yesterdays and you have learned. You may not have conquered everything, but you've got the experience. Number your days, find a heart of wisdom, and let God bless that.