Did Any Of It Matter?

Have you ever wonder if what you've given your life to was worth it? I have. In fact I've been doing a lot of evaluating over this past year. No, it's not a mid-life crisis. How do I know? Cause I haven't purchased a sports car or traded in my husband! I'm in my midlife so I'm evaluating. I've been asking if I did my best? Did I give myself to the right things? Right people? I confess, as I've looked back I have questioned if I chose well.  Have you ever wondered that? I think at one time or another we all do. Whether it's because our job, marriage, kids, finances, faith and or friends aren't quite what we expected or because mortality lies at our doorstep, we ask.We should ask. Evaluation is a good way to realign, restructure, and reinvest what life you have left to give. So to help me evaluate I'm reading through Ecclesiastes. It's the book in the Bible where Solomon asked many of these types of questions. Solomon had it all, money, women, power, honor, stuff and smarts but he said it was meaningless. I want to know what is meaningful so I'm tracking with him to see what he discovered.Here's what I thought about today. Solomon goes through a long list of things he chased but called it all vanity, chasing the wind, meaningless. Then in 2:24-25  he said, "So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him?" Then he repeats this idea in 3: 9-13, "What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are the gifts from God."Do you see what he repeated? This idea of life being about eating, drinking and enjoying the fruits of our labor. (Being satisfied with the work God has given!) What's up with that? Why did he find these things to be the pleasures from the hand of God? What do you think? How does it impact your questions about your life's work?More tomorrow ...