Trouble, Trouble, Toil and Trouble

   Toil and trouble, now that is a pleasant thought to begin the day. Why do those words stand out of the reading for today?

   From Psalm 90, a psalm written by Moses, I read in The Message:

   "We live for seventy years or so 
      (with luck we might make it to eighty), 
   And what do we have to show for it? Trouble. 
      Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard".
   The span of life that is given here hits me right where I live. Seventy or maybe eighty years and then it is over, and I see myself right in the middle of those years, right now.

   So, how do I treat the days that I am living right now? Do I want to look back on my life and see it as trouble and wasted?  No, of course not.

   But I look at the days that I live, take yesterday for an example, and I see a morning filled with some true thoughts about prayer and the consideration of others, and then I see a time on the golf course that was frustrating for me and probably embarrassing to my partners, and then a time of activity with my wife, I and realize the inconsistency of it all. How can I live in the right way and the wrong way in the same day, and why is it so obvious to me when I look back on it? My priorities are askew, for sure.

   So what is to be done? How can I make the days left in my life count for something? Not on my own that is for sure.

   A little farther down in that same psalm, Moses pens these words:

   "Oh! Teach us to live well! 
      Teach us to live wisely and well!"
   It may be bad to have to ask for this at this late stage, but it is better late than never.

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