Teach us the number of our days that we may enter the heart of wisdom. – Psalm 90:12
Kevin Kelly stumbled upon it whilst sleeping on the spot where Jesus was crucified, and he took on the assignment of living the next six months as if he was going to die.
Linford Detweiler scribbled it down in a letter one cold Tuesday morning twenty years ago, when he accidentally discovered the secret of eternal life.
And Steve Jobs summed it up in that famous Stanford speech…the only commencement speech he’d ever agreed to give…with a simple question:
“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”
The key to knowing your purpose, your reason for being, and what you should do with your life lies in knowing that your days on earth are numbered.
33 years, 69 years, 969 years…however big or small the number, the fact is that there is a number representing your time here on earth.
And even though it can be tempting to worry about what that number is, fret over “what happens next”, hem and haw over the compelling clarity of Pascal’s wager, constantly play the soundtrack of regret over what has or hasn’t happened…the real question facing every living being is this:
What are you going to do with the life you have left?
Whether it’s a minute, a week, a year, or a century…what are you going to do with the life you have left?
And the answer lies in numbering your days…assigning, appointing, weighing them out like a precious commodity.
Once you realize how preciously beautiful, fragile and numbered your time on earth is…the fog will clear and you’ll know exactly what you need to do next.