Our Years 'As a Tale that is Told'

I can still remember Gideon's Bibles in every motel I ever stayed in. I have heard stories about people opening up a Gideon's Bible and reading, and as they opened their heart to the Lord, they were strengthened or encouraged, or maybe even got saved. I can remember many occasions when I was on the road and picked up a Gideon's Bible and read something in it that touched me in some way. Now, you don't see many Gideon's Bibles. In 1899, two traveling salesmen, John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill, met in a hotel and learned they were both Christians. Together, they started the Gideons International. Their goal was to place Bibles in every hotel room in the United States so people traveling far from home could have access to the comfort and guidance of Scripture. I have been led to open up one of my Gideon's falling apart New Testaments for suggested verses to go to when you have different needs. For example, I have been weary today, so I looked up in my little green one the word "Weary" in my little green Gideon's New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs, the one with the front and back cover taped together. The first suggested passage is Psalm 90. I have a note in my Bible that the King James Version of Psalm 90 Verse 9 says this: "For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told." I looked it up and verified that this is the case. This is a much better translation than the NKJV that I have. It reads like this: The NKJV version reads like this. "For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh." I feel like that expression, "we spend our years as a tale that is told" speaks of weariness in life, something like feeling burnt out, wearing thin, ragged around the edges, and we are tempted to say things like, "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired." Worn out, bushed, exhausted, pooped, wiped out, well, you get the idea. Have you felt that way today? I have not felt sick and tired of being sick and tired today, but I have other days. Today I have just been tired because I didn't get enough sleep last night. I couldn't get to sleep after staying up late three nights in a row. You know the experts advise you to have a regular sleep pattern, go to bed about the same time every night. I don't know about you, but I don't always do what the "experts" say do. I just live one day at a time, and today I was so tired I couldn't even go to the gym to ride the bike for 30 minutes. Instead, I had to go lie down and I think I fell asleep but I have no idea for how long. That verse in Psalm 90 spoke to me: "spending our years as a tale that is told," as if to say, "I am fed up with the routine, the "dailiness" of my life. Well, I work in a school, and I really don't do the same thing all day so much that I feel that kind of boredom, but I have experienced it, and I think most of us know what that's like. I just read that studies mention percentages ranging between 12 and 85 percent of workers who feel that way about their jobs. I can't believe that is God's plan for people. So, if that's your situation, God will change it if you ask him to. God has blessed me with a job I like for the past 10 years, but I still get weary, so today, I just want to share some Scriptures that you can go to when you're weary. Here is probably the best verse in my life for this: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). The last two are 1 Corinthians 15:58 and Galatians 6:9,10. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58). "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith" (Galatians 6:9,10). So, that is what God gave me for tonight and I share them with you, and hope you will be blessed and rested. May your sleep be sweet and you wake up refreshed to face another day in the triumph of the Lord. And I close with this: "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place" (1 Corinthians 2:14). And remember that if you are his, you carry the fragrance of the Lord with you everywhere you go.