Everything is Meaningless

Sometimes you have those days when you realize just how short life really is.  You realize that you can take nothing for granted.  It makes you reflect on your own life and deal with the fact that you only have a short time here.  Are you really accomplishing what you intended to accomplish?

I know that I don't want to look back on my own life with regrets.

One of my very favorite books in the Bible is Ecclesiastes.  Sit down and read the first chapter.  It hardly seems like it would be anyone's favorite!

As you read it (and I recommend you do!) you should know that the author who uses the pseudonym, Qohelet, is believed by the vast majority of theologians to be Solomon.

What do you know about Solomon?  Well, let me tell you a few things.  He is believed to be the richest and wisest man to ever walk the earth.  He had it all--fame, intelligence, riches, possessions, and even women.  He wrote many of the Proverbs and Psalms.  As the son of David, he inherited a kingdom and was part of the lineage of Jesus Christ.

And yet...he wrote Ecclesiastes.  In it he tells us that everything is meaningless--wisdom, pleasures, working, advancement, riches, possessions...everything.

Ponder chapter 9, verses 11-12:

I have seen something else under the sun: 

The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, 

nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant 

or favor to the learned; 

but time and chance happen to them all. 

Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come: 

As fish are caught in a cruel net, 

or birds are taken in a snare, 

so people are trapped by evil times 

that fall unexpectedly upon them.

Don't take a single day for granted.  Don't look for happiness in those things that are meaningless.

My friend that had the stroke yesterday will be recovering for months.  The "clot blocker" injection did not work, nor did the angioplasty.  The damage is permanent and severe.  The clot is still there.  There are so many unanswered questions that can only be answered through additional tests and the passage of time.

Before the stroke yesterday she sent me an email--excited that I agreed to be the presenter at her United Methodist Women's Circle meeting next month.  She was so vibrant, active, loving, and encouraging.  In fact, she was sitting and holding her beautiful 2-month old grand-baby when the bomb dropped.

Meaningless.

But her life has not been meaningless.  As a mother, grandmother, educator, and Christian she has made lasting, meaningful differences in the lives of many...including my own.  You see, it is not meaningless to invest in other lives.

And I pray that she is granted the opportunities to continue to do so.