Tonight I have Bible Study, so tomorrow I will start my personal Bible reading. I've been debating what to read. My husband asked me what I was leaning towards, and I said Psalms. However, I feel like I'm always reading Psalms! Even as I type this, I'm wondering if I should be reading New or Old Testament. Popular or Obscure? Maybe Ezra...have I ever read Ezra? I think I'll go with Ecclesiastes.
I don't have my Bible with me, so I'm not sure how many verses there are in Chapter 1, but that's what I'm going to read this week. I'll go slowly through the first chapter so I can really focus on what was written. Feel free to join in reading Ecclesiates with me, though it's not required to read the same thing.
You may comment anytime during the week about what you've read under this post. I haven't decided if I'll post daily, but most definitely by the 12th.
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I read the first 11 verses of Eccl. Vapor of vapors and futility of futilities! This reading helps me to remember that my job is just a job, not my identity. It's how I'm earning money, not significance. Awhile back, I remember complaining to Mark that my job gets the best hours from me and I wanted to change that. Now, I put more focus into my home and family. I can't say that I DO anything different, but because my focus has changed, I'm able to care for my family better.
In the end, unless Jesus comes back first, I will be buried and no one will remember me. Someday, a stranger may see my tombstone and imagine what my life was like "back then". It may be a terrific story, that might not have any resemblance to the truth. That's what I do when I visit cemeteries.
Will I have done anything for God with my futile life?
I just read the whole book. (What can I say? I'm used to being up all night and can't sleep.) It's very repetitious. I started having visions of a Beautiful Mind, or Proof. It starts to scramble around in my brain and I think the author should have heeded his own advice about many words being meaningless and a wise man choosing his words carefully. But nothing that is part of God's Word is there by accident. So what is it that God wants to teach me?
Like you, I've determined not to give the best of myself to my job, not to make my job my life. But even with that determination, I have missed it, because I hate my job. And hating my job gives it power to drain me, to suck life from me. Solomon keeps saying "everything under the sun is meaningless.” Nothing you do will stand. Nothing will count. Everyone has the same chances for positive or negative outcomes whether righteous or wicked. So quit worrying about it and just enjoy living. Be glad for whatever it is God has given you to do and do it.
The other thing that jumped out at me is that the wisest, richest man on the planet was also pretty melancholy. One might even say depressed. And yet he didn’t lose focus on who God is. He didn’t even have Jesus and the hope of eternity and still he knew that anything that is, is from God and is therefore good.
So, yeah, life can really suck, or it can be fabulous, in the end it’s all the same. Nothing matters except that I’m who and where God has made and brought me. Who else and where else would I possibly want to be? (But even as I type this that little voice in my head is protesting. I have made so many mistakes and been so stupid, how can I possibly not want to be someone and somewhere else?) It’s time to let go of the past, quit worrying about the future and delight in today (by the grace of God.)
I've read verses 11-18 over and over trying to see what God wants me to learn. This morning, the thought that came to me is that I will never gain significance by my job or how clean my house is, but it's what I strive for. (v.14). I'm not sure I'm only seeking to be important in other's eyes, either. Maybe my eyes as well. In Christ, I'm so significant that He died for me! Verse 15 says, "what is crooked cannot be made straight and what is defective and lacking cannot be counted," so I really need to focus on the One who has redeemed me and made me straight and effective!
This was a tough section for me. I hope chapter 2 is easier.
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