Count Down vs Count Up

I’ve noted it many times through the years of sharing, a countdown means you know where you are going and can judge how close to an ending. Count Up has no end. Well, maybe a ceiling where you count the number of increments from the floor to the top, but you get what I mean.

Counting Down is different than Counting Up.

In one, you know your destination, and the other has no ending in sight. At least, that’s my view.

There’s a sweet lady I follow on Instagram and YouTube. If you are around me very long, I’ll bring her up. Anne of All Trades. (Her husband is Adam of No Trades.) She is multi-faceted, and I’ll not list her accomplishments except one she shared this week.

Until recently, she posted on her social platforms
every day, for six years.
Even when she’s not sure she wants to do it.

She was creating a brand, showcasing her talents and services, and thought that if she missed a day, it would all crumble to nothing. She hates the word “Influencer” as the social platforms define her. She just wants to connect and share!

Think about commitment and creativity. Her farm life, rebuilding equipment, making wooden spoons and other wooden furniture, playing her musical instruments, including her mandolin that she made… Wait! I said I wouldn’t list her accomplishments! Oh well, she’s been on the cover of a woodworking magazine and taught woodworking in Port Townsend, WA. A few years ago, they moved to Tennessee and focused on building a new model of business that would include a training school for the future.

I’m not speaking for Anne, but imagine a 33-year-old woman with many talents, wishes, and desires. She’s probably had more countdowns than most of us and counts upward to who knows when the end will come or where she’ll be.

Between The Two

Between the two ranges of counting, you have to be yourself. Warts, moles, victories, defeats, and everything else you can imagine. You need downtime, respite care, and a little excitement. You must have margins in your life (Michael Hyatt), and boundaries (Henry Cloud) Make room for yourself and those you love.

In other words, while you are busy counting, don’t forget to live!

It’s not all about the numbers! I learned this a long time back, even though I keep myself on track for the important numbers. They are personal, but I live with them every day.

From our wedding day until today, 11/06/22… (Here’s a good free web-based tool: TimeandDate.com)

• 17,659 days
• 1,525,737,600 seconds
• 25,428,960 minutes
• 423,816 hours
• 17,659 days
• 2,522 weeks and 5 days
• 48+ years!

Wow! There’s power in counting! But you must do it every day, all the time, knowing where you came from and where you’re headed. I can count backward, but I cannot count forward. But between these beginnings and endings, we’ve lived life! The bulk of our lives is lived with and through each other.

Time Beyond Time

I listen to songs (often) while I write, or at least hum them in my mind. While penning these words, I listened to Carrie Underwood sing “Temporary Home.” One of the lines states, this is just a temporary place I’m in on the way to where I belong.

Isn’t that the truth? Our lives are limited by the numbers we live, but eternity is a place where we will never count again. That being said, living the best I can here prepares me for the time beyond time.

The apostle Paul, and probably many thousands of others (I know I have), state life like this:

Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God,
who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body
we are absent from the Lord.
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body
and to be present with the Lord.
Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent,
to be well pleasing to Him.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that each one may receive the things done in the body,
according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
(2 Corinthians 5:5-10 NKJV)

What we do here and how well we do it is part of our eternal reward. Remember, that’s the time when there will be no more counting, either up or down.