HOW MANY DAYS?

I was surprised yesterday when I opened a package from my Mom to find (among other things) a picture of myself at three months. It was taken almost exactly 60 years ago!! Ever try to identify with yourself at three months of age? It' s impossible! It was more like looking at a stranger's face. Yet as I looked, that baby represented to me a book of mostly empty pages--MY PAGES. Then I looked at myself with 60 years-full of pages filled in and it was scary!! I couldn't help but wonder if what I am today is what God had in mind for me when I was starting out in life. I do believe each of us has a calling of God on our lives, like the framework of a house. God determines the foundations, the structural beams--our giftings and abilities--but the filling-in of that frame he leaves up to us. I'm an open-ended person (the downside being I tend to leave things unresolved) so I like the idea of freedom of choice, of options, of having more than one "right way" to do things. I don't believe I am a marionette with God pulling the strings. I used to believe that God's perfect will was a terribly narrow line that was difficult to find and difficult to stay on. Today I believe it is more like broad band internet. There is space to move about within God's perfect will. I know I can't change the choices I've made, that's past, but I can decide how I will live today. I pray earnestly and humbly with the psalmist, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Psalm 90:12