Daily Devotional for Small Group Discussion: Memento Mori

by Yael Lachman | published on Mar 3, 2025

Discussion Questions

  1. Do you have a practice, or an object, or a place that helps you remember that your days are numbered and precious?
  2. Is there a person you know who lives their life with so much clarity of purpose that they inspire you to do the same?
  3. As you count your own days and discern how to use them, is there something you feel called to begin doing with your time? Is there something you feel called to stop doing?

So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. – Psalm 90:12 (NRSV)  

For many years, the route of my morning run took me along a river and through the grounds of an old cemetery. As I followed the cemetery’s winding paths, my racing mind would begin to settle. By the time I got home, I knew which items on my to-do list mattered most and which were actually not important at all. Maybe it was the fresh morning air, or the negative ions rising off the river. But I’m pretty sure that the clarity I found each morning had a lot to do with the cemetery itself. 

Running past the graves of those who had once lived and worked and loved in that place, I couldn’t help noticing the dates on their headstones and doing the math in my head: this one lived nearly 90 years; this one only 38. Each morning, those gravestones served as a tangible reminder that our days are always numbered. Every day, that cemetery offered me a gentle invitation to count my own days, and to make wiser choices about how I spend them.   

It’s not unlike the invitation we receive on Ash Wednesday, as we feel the touch of ashes on our forehead and hear the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This week, as we prepare to follow Jesus into the wilderness of Lent, we too are invited to reflect—as he does—on what is most important in this life. This Lenten season, we are called to decide what in this beautiful, broken world is truly worthy of our numbered days, our finite attention, our life’s energy … and what is not. May we choose well.  

Prayer
Christ of the wilderness, remind us that we come from Earth, and to Earth we shall return … and that you go with us, always.

Yael LachmanAbout the Author
Rev. Yael Lachman is a UCC minister and artist who leads contemplative retreats, art adventures, and worship for all ages, most often in wild places. You can find Yael here.