Numbering Our Days: Finding a Rhythm for a Formed Life

September has always felt a little like a second New Year. Summer has its own rhythm. Vacations interrupt our schedules. The days are longer. We travel more, spend more time outside, attend family gatherings, and often loosen some of the routines that shape the rest of the year. Even if our work schedules don't change much, summer somehow feels different.

Then September comes.

Schools are back in session. Church ministries begin again. Vacations wind down. Calendars fill. Alarm clocks get set. We find ourselves returning to familiar routines. There is something comforting about that. I like rhythm. I like knowing what my week is supposed to look like. But perhaps before we automatically return to our old routines, September gives us an opportunity to ask a deeper question: Are the rhythms of my life forming me into the person God is calling me to become?

Psalm 90 contains a prayer that speaks directly into that question:

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”— Psalm 90:12 NIV

Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses, and much of the psalm reflects on the contrast between the eternal nature of God and the shortness of human life. God is “from everlasting to everlasting,” while our lives pass quickly. That can sound a little depressing if we aren't careful. But Moses isn't simply lamenting that life is short. He turns that reality into a prayer:

Teach us.

Teach us to recognize that our days are limited. Teach us to pay attention to them. Teach us to live them well.

And notice what Moses asks God to produce through that awareness. Not productivity. Not accomplishment. Not a perfectly organized calendar.

Wisdom.

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

There is a difference between managing our time and living our days wisely. We can have an organized calendar and a hurried soul. We can accomplish everything on our to-do list and neglect the people sitting across the table from us. We can make time for work, appointments, errands, entertainment, and responsibilities while continually telling ourselves that we will find time for prayer, Scripture, rest, community, or simply being present with God later.

The problem is that “later” has a way of becoming our life. Our days become weeks. Our weeks become months. Our months become years. And eventually the way we spend our days becomes the way we have spent our lives. Perhaps that is why Moses prayed - Teach us to number our days.

Our Rhythms Are Forming Us

One of the things I have become increasingly convinced of is that we are all being formed. The question isn't whether we are being formed. The question is what is forming us.

Our habits shape us. Our relationships shape us. Our disappointments shape us. Our fears shape us. The things we repeatedly give our attention to shape us. And our daily rhythms shape us too.

How we begin the morning matters. What receives our attention throughout the day matters. The voices we listen to matter. The relationships we make room for matter. Whether we worship, pray, rest, serve, laugh, exercise, eat with others, read Scripture, sit quietly, or spend hours scrolling through a screen—all of these things become part of the environment in which our hearts are being formed.

That doesn't mean every moment needs to become a spiritual exercise. Nor does it mean we should feel guilty whenever we watch television, sleep late on a Saturday, or spend an afternoon doing absolutely nothing productive. It means we learn to pay attention.

What kind of life are my habits creating?

And perhaps an even more important question:

Who am I becoming through the life I am currently living?

A Rule of Life

Christians throughout history have used something called a rule of life to help answer questions like these. The word rule can make it sound restrictive, but that isn't really the idea. A rule of life is simply an intentional rhythm for living—a way of arranging our ordinary lives so there is room for the things that matter most. It isn't about creating a rigid schedule or becoming a more impressive Christian. It isn't another spiritual checklist to complete.

It is about making room for God's transforming work in the life we are actually living. A rule of life might cause us to think intentionally about things such as prayer and Scripture, worship and Christian community, work, relationships, caring for our bodies, serving others, rest, and even play. Not because every person's week should look exactly the same.

Our seasons are different. Our responsibilities are different. Our personalities are different. The rhythm that works for a mother with small children will look different from the rhythm of someone who is retired. A pastor's rhythm may look different from a teacher's. A caregiver's season may require something completely different from what worked five years ago. That's why a rule of life isn't about copying someone else's schedule. It's about intentionally asking God how to faithfully live the life He has given you.

Before the Calendar Fills Up

That's what I've been thinking about as September begins. Many of us are settling back into our routines. Before long, those routines will feel normal again. The calendar will fill. The weeks will move quickly. So maybe this is a good time to stop before everything gets filled in.

Take a look at a normal week—not your ideal week, but the one you're actually living. Spend time thinking through these questions:

• Where does your time go?

• What receives your best attention?

• Where have you made room for God?

• Where have you made room for people?

• Where have you made room for rest?

• What continually gets crowded out?

• What are you doing simply because you've always done it?

• What might God be inviting you to make more room for in this season?

• And perhaps most importantly: Is the way I am living helping me become the person God is calling me to be?

You don't have to redesign your entire life this September. Maybe the first step is simply paying attention. Notice your rhythms, habits and where your time goes. Notice what gives life to your soul and what continually drains it. Then bring all of it before God.

Psalm 90 doesn't tell us that we should already know how to order our days wisely.

It gives us a prayer. Teach us.

Teach us how to live these finite, ordinary, beautiful days You have given us.

Teach us what deserves our attention and what doesn't.

Teach us when to work and when to rest.

Teach us when to hold on and when to let go.

Teach us to make room for Your presence in the middle of ordinary life.

Teach us to recognize that these days aren't merely something to get through on the way to something else.

These days are our lives. So as the schedules settle and the routines begin again this September, perhaps this can be our prayer: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

A Prayer for Our Days

Lord, teach us to number our days. Help us to see our time as a gift from You and to live it with wisdom and intention. Show us the rhythms and habits that are shaping our hearts. Give us courage to release what is crowding out what matters, and wisdom to make room for Your presence in the ordinary moments of our lives.

Teach us when to work and when to rest, when to speak and when to listen, when to hold on and when to let go. Help us to be present with the people You have placed around us and attentive to the ways Your Spirit is at work within us.

As we settle into new routines and familiar schedules, keep us from simply filling our calendars. Teach us to build lives that make room for You and for the transforming work You desire to do in us.

May the way we spend our days increasingly reflect the people You are forming us to become. Teach us to number our days, Lord, that we may gain hearts of wisdom. Amen.