A few years ago the movie "Dead Poets Society" resurrected a Latin phrase, Carpe Diem, or Seize the Day, an exhortation to live life to the fullest, getting the most out of each individual day.
I thought of that phrase this morning as I read Ecclesiastes 9. Ecclesiastes is not on the top of my reading list, but I found myself there today. Throughout the book, Solomon struggles with issues like the vanity and futility of life. Not exactly the book you turn to in order to be encouraged. Yet that is what I found in this passage!
Solomon’s journey had taken him through seasons of pursuing God wholeheartedly to times of seeking his own paths. His wrong choices left him empty, broken, and dis.heart.ened. He had lost heart.
Solomon had great wisdom, wealth, and every whim of his heart was his, yet his long season of pursuing selfish desires had left him disillusioned. We believe he wrote Ecclesiastes toward the end of his life. He reflected on his life and on life in general and shared what he had learned.
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?” … “I communed with my heart, saying, ‘Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge. And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 16-17).
Wow, that will stoke your fire, huh?
Chapter nine continues with Solomon’s exploration of how both good and bad come to all, “To him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner,” (vs. 3). And just when you think you want to close the book before you are overcome with discouragement, he offers these truths:
“Go eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart: For God has already accepted your works. Let your garments always be white, and let your head lack no oil. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life…Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going,” (cheerful, huh?) [verses 7-10].
And yet, there is a simple wisdom for us.
Enjoy the day. We don’t know what will come tomorrow. (Click post title to read entire post)
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Vision is a wonderful gift. I appreciate it more and more as I ‘age’. I began to complain a few years ago to my optometrist about the changes in my vision. He proceeded to tell me that I was one of the lucky ones who had never had any vision problems and that what I was describing was just normal changes that occur as we ‘age’. He informed me that I was just noticing these changes more than the average person because my vision had previously been so perfect which was unusual for my ‘age’. Read more...
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Listening to the gentle rain falling outside, I sit quietly reflecting. It is early morning. Everyone else in my home is still asleep. With my Yorkie, Gabriel, curled up beside me in my chair, I sip my coffee and think about the New Year and the one that just ended.
New Year’s Day invites me to consider how well I’ve lived this past year. Did I meet some important goals? As I look back on my last year’s resolutions, I ask God if I’ve lived as well as I could in relation to those goals.
This day invites me to make new promises to myself and to reflect on what I hope the New Year will bring.
Prayerfully I release 2010, knowing that with its successes and its failures, it is gone. I thank my heavenly Father for the successes, the goals met, the progress made, and the victories won. I spend time grieving the failures, the goals unmet, the battles lost, and the ground lost.
In our humanity, we will have failures, incompleteness, bad days and even years we’d rather forget, yet God invites us to offer the completeness of our lives to him.
When we sit at Jesus’ feet in honesty with all our triumphs and all our failures, He receives us.
I think of how Jesus said that we must come to him as a little child. Most little children have not learned to live behind a façade. They are just who they really are. Read more...
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What if I told you that I could guarantee you a mistake-free life from today forward?What if I offered you a downloadable document for $9.95 with an outline for mistake-proof living or what if I offered you an app for that? Would you be “a taker” for any of those offers?
Life is a journey. Who we are is a composite result of our journey with the good and the bad adding the herbs and spices to our life’s soup.Every day, every hour, every minute of our lives blend together to form us. Most of us would love to hit the Undo key for several of those moments and perhaps even for several of our years!Of course, that is impossible, but what can you and I do about living the rest of our lives well?
Sometimes I find it helpful to speak in opposites so in order to talk about how to live today I will speak of how not to live your life.
1. 1. Do not allow your bad days, weeks, or years define you in negative ways. Instead allow them to “grow” you.
2. 2. Do not close your heart because you’ve been hurt. While we must be wise in “who” we allow into our hearts, sometimes our wounds lead us to close our hearts to most, if not all, in order to protect ourselves from future pain.This closing of our hearts is like hitting the times 10 (X10) key on the loneliness button. We are not designed to live in isolation. Pursue godly relationships. Read more...
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Do you think God ever laughs in pleasure? Can you picture Jesus laughing while interacting with people? Many of you might have difficulty seeing Divinity in those ways. Yet most of us can quickly conjure up images of God being angry or sending bolts of lightning down on us in response to our sinfulness.
If we humans are created in God’s image and He gave us the full range of emotions, don’t you suppose His emotions also included joy that overflows into laughter? I do. In fact, I think it would be profitable for all of us to take a few moments and imagine God smiling at us in love and pleasure. Galatians tells us that we are God’s handiwork and just as He reviewed His works of creation as recorded in Genesis and said, “It is good,” I believe He looks at us and is pleased with His work of creation.
The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us in Ecclesiastes 3: 4 that there is a time to laugh. St. Iraneus wrote that the glory of God is man fully alive. I believe that a fully alive individual knows how to laugh!
It is appropriate for all of us to stop and evaluate our ability to laugh and have fun. Sometimes life’s painful circumstances have taught us that we don’t deserve to have fun. Religion can teach us that fun isn’t holy. If you are one of those individuals who have difficulty playing and having fun, today is the day you should begin to challenge that mindset. Allow God to bring healing into your heart through fun and laughter.
Laughter is an important part of life. Proverbs 17: 22 says that “A merry heart does us good, like a medicine.” Laughter brings healing. It is music to our souls. Laughter connects our soul and spirit.
So today I want to make you smile and laugh!
The following is a clip from our children’s presentation at church on Dec. 20. The little star of this clip is Caleb Bullard, son of Todd and Amy Bullard. Todd and Amy weren’t sure Caleb would actually go up on the stage, but oh, did he ever. He not only went up on the stage, he took over the stage. His performance seems to have said, “Here I am world! Enjoy me!” I rather think God loved seeing his little son enjoy himself. This clip doesn’t show his full body which would have made it even better if you could have seen his little side steps, but click away and smile.
A few years ago the movie "Dead Poets Society" resurrected a Latin phrase, Carpe Diem, or Seize the Day, an exhortation to live life to the fullest, getting the most out of each individual day.
Listening to the gentle rain falling outside, I sit quietly reflecting. It is early morning. Everyone else in my home is still asleep. With my Yorkie, Gabriel, curled up beside me in my chair, I sip my coffee and think about the New Year and the one that just ended.
What if I told you that I could guarantee you a mistake-free life from today forward? What if I offered you a downloadable document for $9.95 with an outline for mistake-proof living or what if I offered you an app for that? Would you be “a taker” for any of those offers?
