How long should I expect to live on this earth? Several hundred years after the flood, Moses declared, “The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10).
Birthdays are nice events, but they also provide powerful dashboards of how far we are on this life journey. Last night had been conceived as a `party night’. Last evening, whilst out with friends, once or twice I found myself dozing as we waited to go out for a night of reveling.
It wasn’t to be. It is in one of those moments of coming awake that I peered into the faces of those anticipating that this was to be the night. The faces round me looked strangely hollow. Everything being discussing sounded so inconsequential. This was not fun. It was torture. What was I doing here? I chose to run. Going home, two gospels songs spoke to me:
The first was `Tufanye Kazi’ found in the `Kwetu Pazuri’ album by the Rwandese Choir Ambassadors of Christ. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itFYD-nukoE The refrain warns: `..Whatever you do, remember that God is the source of everything; we must not deceive ourselves, that what we have is due to our hard work’.
The second song is Hellenah Ken’s `Sitrudi Kuwa Vile’ in the album `Sitarudi’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OPNvDPLaP8
The singer evangelizes that she will not return to the past low quality life led during the past year, since God has declared this is the year of the Lord.
As Abraham did so many years before, I choose to pitch my tent and rest to reflect under the Mamre Tree (https://treeofmamre.wordpress.com/what-is-the-tree-of-mamre/).