Good days can be drowned by crazy weeks. Good weeks can be mowed down by manic months. Good months can be bushwacked by draining seasons. Good seasons can be swamped by difficult years. This I know well. Just read my last post. Something’s gotta change, or I’m going to continue on a path that’s too demanding to sustain long term. Hence my last few posts.
“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom,” Psalm 90:12 instructs us. Yup. Still been chewing on that. Some new stuff I’ve found:
The word TEACH here implies not just the imparting of facts, but the development of understanding.
The word NUMBER means “to weigh.” To assign a weight to.
The word DAYS is a Hebrew word that means “to be hot” or “heat.” As in, the heat of the day. Biblically speaking, heat can also refer metaphorically to things like pressure, testing, and stress.
The word WISDOM here can also refer to skill.
Put that together, and you get something like this: “Help me understand how to manage the heat in my life – to accurately gauge the weight and strain, the toll each task will take on me — so I can live prudently and effectively long term.”
BINGO.
For me, this has involved praying and listening to God about things like:
– What time of day is most productive for me? Least productive? What does that say about when I should be doing what?
– I don’t like chipping away at things I’m passionate about, like creative stuff. I take large chunks at a time. I’m all in!
– When it comes to admin, I don’t chunk. I chip away.
– If I’m already chewing on a big chunk, I can’t handle another chunk on my plate at the same time.
– Too many admin tasks to chip at seriously limit my ability to properly chew and swallow the big chunks.
– Preaching more than 3 sermons in a row puts me into negative territory on my energy meter unless I can compensate in other ways – which I can’t always count on.
What about you? What have you learned about your style, your rhythm, your heart?