Guns and Butter

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12).”

Spring Gobbler 2019…no butter (ball)

 

I don’t recall much from my Economics class at MSU except that D.B. Suits wore a Hawaiian shirt when he taught us, my final grade was a measly 1.5, and if you spend all your assets on guns, then you can’t buy butter.  Assets are limited and they cannot be used twice.  If you spend it all on butter, then no guns. Basic economics.

“On the banks of the Red Cedar….”

 

The same goes for our non-renewable days, which if you live to be 70 years old then you’ll have about 25,000 days to spend…days you will use up by keeping yourself busy until you come to the end of your days.  Most of us use up those days at work, raising a family, or hobbies on weekends. Like a dollar spent, they are gone forever.

The Bible says we should think hard about those remaining days, number them, if we want to be wise, but no one does.  Not really.  We just jump on the hamster wheel and run. Maybe it’d help if we had a visual reminder, like thousands of marbles in a jar on our dresser that each morning we took one marble out and put it in our pocket.  Maybe that would help us use our days more wisely when we realize how short and valuable they are and use them being kind, volunteering, spending time with our kids, etc.  Maybe, but I think there’s a better way.

Dreaming of Eden

 

Think back to when you were a child and the “What would you wish for if a genie granted you three wishes?” moment.  Every kid knows the third wish is to have a million more wishes, right? I think that’s what God may be getting at here with numbering our days to have a heart of wisdom.  It’s not necessarily investing the 25,000 days correctly by camping with your kids or joining the Peace Corps, but realizing there is an end…a guns and butter moment where the days are all spent. Then what?

The answer is obvious…just make more days.  Make your third wish count by living forever…by getting serious about Jesus Christ.  His death and resurrection is that third wish to make a million more wishes.  Remember what He said when His friend Lazarus died in chapter 11 of the Gospel of John?

“I am the resurrection and the life.  The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”

Inside the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem

 

Catch that?  Even though you die (use up all your days), you can get more days by believing in Jesus.  But believing isn’t acknowledging He existed; it’s giving up your remaining days to Him as your Lord.  You trade your remaining days by surrendering all of them to Him so you can live forever (the third wish).  Just ask Him to forgive you for all your stupid days (sin), literally come into your body, and take over as Lord.

You can live forever if Jesus is inside of your body.  Smooth as butter.