IF I HAD BUT ONE YEAR TO LIVE by A.W. Tozer

Moses prayed, "Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."
Now, suppose that the first half of that prayer were to have literal fulfillment for me, and I were to learn positively that I had but one year to live—the number of my days were to be 365, no more, and at the end of that time my earthly life were to reach a sure and sudden termination in the shocking finality which is death. What could I do to bring the answer to the rest of that prayer? If I applied my heart, what would "wisdom" dictate that I should do with the precious days that remained to me?

The first thing that strikes me is that I should have to arrive at some plan of action in conformity with known facts. However much I might ignore them while the hope of long life lay before me, with that hope shrunk to a brief year, these facts would take on tremendous proportions. I mean the great cardinal facts of Bible doctrine. It is a significant thought that with death stalking me I should have no interest whatever in any controverted subjects; neither would the profundities of theology influence me, nor the abstruse refinements of Christian metaphysics.

When someone asked Mark Twain what he did with those passages in the Bible that he could not understand, he replied with grim humor: "The passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand." And I am sure that I should not be bothered by any of the minor differences that separate the brethren: Calvinism, church polity, the great pyramid, or the identity of the beast and the false prophet. I should only feel a real pity for those garrulous saints who, unmindful of the swift passing of the years, debate theological trivialities to their own confusion.

But just what would be the part of wisdom for one with but a few numbered years to go? Well, here is the way it would affect me.