COMMENTARY: Wisdom means learning to number our days

c. 1996 Religion News Service (Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J.) (RNS)-They buried my friend Andrea the other day, and part of my youth went with her. Hers is the first death […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J.)

(RNS)-They buried my friend Andrea the other day, and part of my youth went with her. Hers is the first death of a high school classmate that I have experienced.


Actually, it is inappropriate to speak of myself as her friend. When I last saw her, after our graduation in 1974, I was merely one of many boys in our class whose love for her was unrequited.

Though I am now happily married, I cannot help but smile wistfully as I reflect upon her pretty face, her vivacious personality … and the date we never had.

Yet if Andrea remains forever young in my memory, the fact persists that she is now gone, a victim of cancer. Her legacy, reflected in the life of her daughter and the testimony of her Christian faith, is secure.

Not so, the rest of our class. For even as we pause to say goodbye to Andrea-indeed, all the Andreas of our youth-our histories are still being written. Thus, perhaps now is a good time to contemplate where we are.

To be sure, the years since graduation have wrought many changes in our lives. Though it seems like just yesterday that we were necking in the hallways and cutting class, the fact is we are spring chickens no longer.

Whereas most of us guys once sported thick hair and a thin waist, many-including me-are now saddled with thinning hair and a (much) thicker waist.

Beyond the physical changes, there are other concerns that we have wrestled with as well. Many of us experienced the pain of divorce, as our attempts to balance marriage, family and career came up short.


Others became disillusioned as the education and employment skills they worked so hard to attain became obsolete in a volatile and ever-changing marketplace.

Now, on the threshold of what sociologists tell us should be our most productive years, many of us are at a loss as to how those years should be spent.”Teach us to number our days,”Moses wrote in Psalm 90,”that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”To”number”one’s days is to recognize that tomorrow is promised to no one. As such, life is to be savored and lived to the fullest.

Certainly this is true of the Andrea I knew. As I perused our class’ yearbook, I was reminded of her many accomplishments: student government president, cheerleader, yearbook staff member, prom queen.

Yet it was in applying herself to wisdom-the second part of Moses’ prayer-that Andrea had perhaps her greatest impact. For wisdom, according to the Scriptures, comes as a result of fearing God.

It is when we realize that God is sovereign and yield to his direction that we truly become wise. According to her pastor, Andrea was imbued with such wisdom, and the lives she touched were richer for it.

Andrea will not be with us as we enter the next-and busiest-phase of life. But she gave us insight on how to set our priorities.


Her life after high school was not an easy one, for she reared her daughter as a single parent. Yet her faith in God helped bring order to the madness and prepared her for an untimely end.

Such are the lessons of a life well-lived. I pray the rest of our class will leave a legacy so rich.

MJP END ATCHISON

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