“For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?”
While I ride my bike, I am always aware of the surroundings. I watch for all kinds of obstacles, cars, people, holes, debris in the road, etc. While spanning across my path, I often observe scenes. You know the kind of Norman Rockwell snap shots of families except mine consist of houses, trees, yards and a landscape or two. I reflect on God’s hand that made the landscapes but sometimes I see something that another person planted that is completely out of place. This could be a palm tree in central Texas or a yard completely covered in rocks with no grass at all. These scenes strike me as odd and out of place and every time I pass by, those landscapes change very little.
I say these things to prove a point, the scenery will continue to be exactly how I saw it even after I pass by. Life can treat us that way sometimes as well. We feel like we are just passing by and watching everyone else’s life flourish. But ours, well, ours is full of toil and hardship. We strive to make a difference in our job, family, friends, and like that out of place landscape, nothing changes.
Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the life! Maybe you have been focused in on the wrong thing. Palm trees don’t do well in central Texas just like all your toil and work won’t change a thing without the Lord Jesus at the center of your life. Too often, we carry on and on, trying to fit human understanding into our lives when the perfect fit is only Jesus and Jesus alone. He needs no help to fill the void in your life.
Solomon proves a precious point here in chapter 6; life without God is meaningless and futile. I challenge you to read the chapter and insert the phrase ‘without God’ after every point. For example (verse 8) “What advantage have the wise over fools without God? What do the poor gain without God.” If you strive to do the work of the Lord, your days will be full of life and be meaningful, but toiling without the Lord as the center of your life will always end up in a frustrating phrase “meaningless.”
Today, pray that the Lord becomes the center of your life and not the tag along buddy you seem to talk to every other Sunday or twice a year. He wants you to talk to Him daily. Life without the Lord will always leave you where it left Solomon at the end of the chapter in verse 12. Strive towards the Lord every day.
Prayer: Father we often look at life and see what Solomon saw, “a chasing after the wind.” We seek to find eternal happiness in non eternal things. You have fashioned us in your likeness and we can only be truly satisfied with the eternal promise of Jesus Christ. So today Lord, help us find you in the middle of our lives. Help us recognize that the eternal hole in our lives can only be filled with you. In Jesus name, amen.
Let It Go 
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