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Teach Us to Number Our Days
In the modern world of high technology and advanced medicine, people are living longer and healthier lives. “Middle age” has taken a leap ten years further down the road until reaching signs that indicate the beginning of the second half of life. In his book Teach Us to Number Our Days, David Roper shows you why and how this season of your life can truly be the best. Offering biblical wisdom and reassurance for you as you mature, Roper invites you to travel with him on his own “journey to maturity.” Calling you to both frank self-reckoning and joy, Roper presents an uplifting look at the possibilities that lie ahead. “So enjoy!” he says. “Enjoy your journey to maturity as you gain perspective on the past and hope for the future. Make the most of every moment of your life.”
224 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 25, 2025
WORK IS THE BEST COMPANION IN OLD AGE.
- Samuel Beckett
THEY ALSO SERVE WHO ONLY STAND AND WAIT.
- John Milton
Ever wonder about how Eternity looks to an old guy?
Well, for one thing, we’re not the same person we were when we were young - so when we look forward to Timelessness, it’s with a radically different POV.
Gone are the rose-tinted glasses of youth. Gone are the muddled thoughts, though, too - if we’re lucky. And if we’ve lived a decent life, a New clarity and equipoise will take their place.
Sure, there are the sudden disconnects from our bodies and minds that, quite often, our sophisticated medications and the sharp accidents of life can produce.
Take this month, for instance...
I suffered an abscess in one of my molars. Luckily, my dentist isn’t far, but my condition necessitated antibiotics and a root canal, scheduled for next week. But crises like that cause disconnects with our life projects of the moment.
To old folks such disconnects, unchecked, can cause intellectual disarray - not an auspicious thing in advanced age.
So, like David Roper, we learn to sharpen our focus, almost to the point where we can “number our days.” Not such a tall order, really, when our needs have already been greatly reduced by economic exigencies, dictates of distancing and the reduced stimuli of a settled life.
But there ARE good things. You know, in the workplace we’re forced to compete with our peers...
Not in our senior years, though - thank Heaven! No - now we’re only in stiff competition with OURSELVES! Like, “Well, it’s for danged sure I won’t try THAT again tomorrow!”
And this is a recent book by that wonderfully humble and down-to-earth apologist David H. Roper about the insights, foibles and fractured fun of aging - when you happen to be a believer!
Get a load of this:
“For myself, I am a saunterer, a wandering pilgrim, begging for grace, slowly making my way to the City of God.
“Let’s hear it for sauntering! ... that’s me: God’s loiterer, in no particular hurry, taking time to see the world around me and sample it along the way.
“Very few people saunter these days.”
Or this:
“Plato said our minds are like aviaries and our thoughts like birds. It’s an apt metaphor for me! I reach for one thought and frighten it away, then grasp at another that quickly flits from my brain - unless I write it down.”
Or this:
“I think of old Jacob, worshipping and ‘leaning on his staff.’ Like Jacob, I too am crippled, broken down and ruined. I’ll always need something or someone to lean on... Like Jacob, I’m growing old and fond of my staff. I aim to keep it close at hand!”
David Roper’s never been known to pull his punches... even when they’re directed at himself! An old fighter, he speaks his mind when most people nowadays are politely and uncomfortably self-restrained.
No, not old David. He sees life clearly and up close - metaphorically, of course, because like the rest of us old-timers, he needs his glasses all the time.
But he also sees the end of his life clearly. And he sees it from the angle from which it is best seen - from the safety of the old rugged cross!
Written in a light, conversational and whimsical tone, its wit and wisdom lead us to the single end of looking beyond all our aches and pains to the Glory beyond.
And it reminds us that just because the struggle is becoming exponentially more difficult with each passing year, that's not a valid reason for giving it anything less than our best shot!
And then, finally at peace - when the time for leaving this short makeshift world arrives - we can finally say with T.S. Eliot:
My life is light, waiting for the death wind
Like a feather on the back of my hand.
- Samuel Beckett
THEY ALSO SERVE WHO ONLY STAND AND WAIT.
- John Milton
Ever wonder about how Eternity looks to an old guy?
Well, for one thing, we’re not the same person we were when we were young - so when we look forward to Timelessness, it’s with a radically different POV.
Gone are the rose-tinted glasses of youth. Gone are the muddled thoughts, though, too - if we’re lucky. And if we’ve lived a decent life, a New clarity and equipoise will take their place.
Sure, there are the sudden disconnects from our bodies and minds that, quite often, our sophisticated medications and the sharp accidents of life can produce.
Take this month, for instance...
I suffered an abscess in one of my molars. Luckily, my dentist isn’t far, but my condition necessitated antibiotics and a root canal, scheduled for next week. But crises like that cause disconnects with our life projects of the moment.
To old folks such disconnects, unchecked, can cause intellectual disarray - not an auspicious thing in advanced age.
So, like David Roper, we learn to sharpen our focus, almost to the point where we can “number our days.” Not such a tall order, really, when our needs have already been greatly reduced by economic exigencies, dictates of distancing and the reduced stimuli of a settled life.
But there ARE good things. You know, in the workplace we’re forced to compete with our peers...
Not in our senior years, though - thank Heaven! No - now we’re only in stiff competition with OURSELVES! Like, “Well, it’s for danged sure I won’t try THAT again tomorrow!”
And this is a recent book by that wonderfully humble and down-to-earth apologist David H. Roper about the insights, foibles and fractured fun of aging - when you happen to be a believer!
Get a load of this:
“For myself, I am a saunterer, a wandering pilgrim, begging for grace, slowly making my way to the City of God.
“Let’s hear it for sauntering! ... that’s me: God’s loiterer, in no particular hurry, taking time to see the world around me and sample it along the way.
“Very few people saunter these days.”
Or this:
“Plato said our minds are like aviaries and our thoughts like birds. It’s an apt metaphor for me! I reach for one thought and frighten it away, then grasp at another that quickly flits from my brain - unless I write it down.”
Or this:
“I think of old Jacob, worshipping and ‘leaning on his staff.’ Like Jacob, I too am crippled, broken down and ruined. I’ll always need something or someone to lean on... Like Jacob, I’m growing old and fond of my staff. I aim to keep it close at hand!”
David Roper’s never been known to pull his punches... even when they’re directed at himself! An old fighter, he speaks his mind when most people nowadays are politely and uncomfortably self-restrained.
No, not old David. He sees life clearly and up close - metaphorically, of course, because like the rest of us old-timers, he needs his glasses all the time.
But he also sees the end of his life clearly. And he sees it from the angle from which it is best seen - from the safety of the old rugged cross!
Written in a light, conversational and whimsical tone, its wit and wisdom lead us to the single end of looking beyond all our aches and pains to the Glory beyond.
And it reminds us that just because the struggle is becoming exponentially more difficult with each passing year, that's not a valid reason for giving it anything less than our best shot!
And then, finally at peace - when the time for leaving this short makeshift world arrives - we can finally say with T.S. Eliot:
My life is light, waiting for the death wind
Like a feather on the back of my hand.
February 14, 2022
Good evening or morning devotional book. Gives perspective to how age affects us and our sense of purpost for God
June 29, 2016
This book is like a devotional. It was really long, You may get to the point you pick out some that you want to read and skip others. Still a good read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews