Day 3044 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Psalm 72:20 NIV

An entire lifetime gone with yet an eternity still waiting.

For those who claim that the Bible is just another book, could you please explain to me how it is that a person can read through it cover to cover multiple times and still manage to find new lessons, new corrections, new inspirations that hit them in ways not felt before. Could you explain to me how it seems to apply to the unique differences found within our frame of mind brought about by the variance of different days? Could you explain to me how it still seems applicable to a people living in world entirely different from when it was written?

No, God's Word is very much alive and active and He is speaking to us through it. So if it seems we're missing the message, maybe it's our eyes, our ears, our hearts, our minds that are dead and dormant and not the Word He breathed.

Among all of His book, the book of Psalms is one of those that has always seemed to stand out among the most widely appreciated of the entirety of Scripture. The poetry and prose proposed throughout offers a glimpse into the hearts and minds of those who walked this strange life before us and dealt with the many uncertainties and discomforts that we ourselves have found it brings. And even though it was written so long before our stories began, it has this way of seeming entirely personal even to our radically different understandings.

I'd just started out my nightly reading last night when this one ground it to a halt, leaving me just sort of sitting there not sure what to think. It's such a strange verse to be found in Scripture. It's not a message of hope or healing. It's not there to add to the flow or feel of a particular lesson or idea. It’s not a parable seeking to inspire us to peer beyond our normal range of sight or thought. Instead it's like this weird little addendum added onto the end of a piece marking the fact that there would be no more coming.

Seems kind of like one of history's first footnotes, a simple message meant to inform the reader of something only somewhat connected to the proceeding words.

And yet, what proceeds the conclusion of anything is everything. Psalm 72 is notated with this little remark teaching us that David's contributions to this collection of wisdom and intimacy and fear and doubt and hope has reached its end. Don't know, just made me think about all that this man David had done and seen and lost and found before someone else added this postscript to his final presentation.

All of us who know anything about Biblical history know of David son of Jesse. This man who began in the humblest and most easily overlooked of circumstances. A man who grew up in the fields watching over a herd of animals that happened to find himself in the right place at the right time with the right faith to leave a mark that would paint a portrait of the possibilities of faith that the whole world would be shocked and stirred by seeing. A young kid who defeated an enemy he had no business standing against.

That young brazen boy would grow to become one of the most celebrated and well-known kings of the ancient world. He would unite all of Israel and lead them into the most prosperous and peaceful period in their history up until that time. He would become described as a man after God's own heart, a servant seeking to satisfy all that his God so clearly deserved, an image of humble strength and faithful courage that would inspire many long after.

All of it culminated in someone else noting that it's all finished now, no more to come. A name, a story, an entire life all reaching their end to be summed up in what is but a footnote after a final statement.

There's this instinctual fear of that coming finality that I truly believe keeps many from living. Trying to outrun the inevitable so that it doesn't ruin someone's plans for all they still wish to continue and want to have. The final period of our period of life, meaning only we'll have nothing else to say, to do, to accomplish, to leave behind for those whom we've gone before. Yes, someday our name will be left to the past with maybe just a mark noting we were here for moment.

What are we doing, what are we leaving, what are we learning that we can leave to help others learn? I'm not talking about seeking a life that rivals that of the massive names written about throughout Scripture. I'm not asking what you're doing to rise to kingship or defeat giants or rule nations. No, for us, most at least, those things aren't our story. But I fear that that's often more of an excuse to sink into mundanity than it is a reminder that we've a story too.

We have a story too. And while it may not be written about or recited by hundreds of generations, while our name may be forgotten almost right away whence we leave, we're here for a reason and it's time that we stop forgetting that simply because it's of such insignificance to us that we imagine nobody else cares either.

You see, my point today is that it's not up to us to determine the worth of our lives, though many seem lost in that pursuit. It's not our mission to make sure we're seen, known, heard, remembered. It's not our story to write a story that's worth passing down. No, our job is to realize that God gave us this time on purpose. We are not an accident, our lives not a meaningless void. But what are we doing to remind ourselves of that every day?

Sadly, we live in this time wherein most are glued to screens or fighting some virtual battle through a comment section or driving around like nobody else matters or ignoring the person standing on the corner clearly not doing okay. Many are more concerned about displaying their keyboard courage than their courage to believe in something beyond what everyone else is so convinced is important. So many are so worried about being known here but forgetting to worry about what will be left behind that shows we're known where we're going?

Guys, we're not getting today back, so is what we've done with it worth our chance to live it?

This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse. This concludes the battles fought and battles lost. This concludes the hopes realized and the many dreams left immaterialized. This concludes a life so filled with ups and downs that he who lived it had no choice but to find the courage to seek and trust God to be the constant in it all. This concludes all David could offer. What do we have to offer?

Friends, each of us have so much more inside of us than we can possibly imagine. But sadly, the modernity of life has hindered our ability to live. We’re lost inside ourselves seeking only ways in which to sink further into all we know to want in this place. So much importance placed on the temporary. So much reliance on technology and society to keep us entertained and pacified and distracted from the fact that we're hemorrhaging time that cannot be bought back and will therefore not ever come back on this side of the conclusion of the life of (insert your name here).

We may hate the idea of it, may well loathe the reality of it, may buy into the crowd seeking to deny it and overcome it and render it powerless, but it'll never be within our power to do so. No, as a finish line grows closer for each of us, I guess we're all just left with a choice. Live like we're dying or live like nothing matters and embrace that hopelessness until we don't need it anymore.

Maybe your life hasn't brought you a renowned victory over an impossible opponent. Maybe you're not sitting on a throne having people kneel before you with gifts of extraordinary extravagance. Maybe you're just a shepherd out here tending to the few in your herd. In the end, all the titles and fame and glory and gain will be lost and left to the past.

What will matter, what matters most, what makes David a name everyone knows is that he lived like God was God and therefore that he knew his story meant something because he was asked to live it by the One who wrote it.

That's something all of us have in common with this giant-toppling giant of history. Not that we're kings or soldiers or accomplishing great feats that others are writing about. No, what we have in common is that God wrote our story and calls us to live it until it's over. Until it's over. I pray we stop letting life slip right on past into the past. I pray we find passion for something that we know beyond a shadow of doubt matters beyond our selfish inclinations.

I pray that we find God and let Him lead us to and through the lives He wrote for us to find meaning within.

Honestly, I personally believe that's perhaps the only thing any of us can ever actually hope to accomplish that's worth being remembered. Not amassing a bunch of treasures or gaining a bunch of fans or creating a name that the future can't help but remember. Maybe all any of us can do that's worth being done is just living our lives like they matter, simply because we believe in a God who doesn't waste His time.

You're not a waste, not a failure, a flaw, a figment to be forgotten in the future. God knows your name, wrote your story, and hasn't ended it yet for a reason. Find that reason. Not some reason that only seems to matter because it clearly matters to everyone else. Because it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks it should be. Doesn't matter what you want it to be. None of that is up to us and so it shouldn't matter to us.

No, what matters, all that matters is that we someday find the humility to live like we're dying so that everyone else around us can hopefully be awakened from their stupor and get to living too.

Today's not just another day. It's the chance to give a gift to yourself, to your family, to your friends, to God above. It's a chance to live a part of this story that we only get to go through once before this chapter closes and the endless begins. Don't just let it slip by. Don’t take it for granted. Don’t sell it for something of no eternal worth. You have breath and energy for a reason. You have a bit of time left for a reason. You have a voice, a message, a story, a testimony for a reason.

Use them for something that just might give you one more thing in common with King David here: That you too could be described as a person after God's own heart.

Can’t think of a better story to leave nor a better story to live.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold