Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Utterly Meaningless



I've been frustrated in searching for meaning lately...I have no real job, real friends are far away and almost out of reach, I don't feel like I've had the time or opportunity to do much real service, I'm not using my degree at all, I clean and serve coffee a lot...In my search for meaning, this is where the Creator has brought me back to:
Ecclesiastes 1:

1
The words of the Teacher, [a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:

2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."

3 What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?

4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.

7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.

8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.

11 There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.

So, what is the meaning if it is all just a "chasing after the wind?". Is apathy our greatest call?
But wait! :

13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

And finally:
6 Remember him...7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

The meaning seems to be as simple as to come, to be, to let go, to enjoy Him, and to return to from where we came. A simple call to contentment seems to be the faith I'm called to these days.

As for the meaningless things of life :)
Soccer is over next week. My girls team ended up setting a school record and making it to their regionals. They are headed to Florida for some fun times and a national Christian College tournament I can't make.
Im headed home to Wisconsin for a baby shower next weekend and to Indy after that for Thanksgiving with my family.
Starbucks is up in the air as to whether I'll continue once the baby arrives (or once he/she decides to let a little chemical message out of its brain firing up my hormones to let he/she loose).
Keith is enjoying new jobs, but loaded down with papers.
Christmas will be our first as a married couple, celebrated without our family in Kentucky awaiting our own little "gift"
"Remember the Creator in the days of your youth"


2 comments:

Unknown said...

George Burns
from Quotes of the Day

"Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city."
It's OK to be bored Eve, and I am sad that you don't consider me a real friend...I consider you one.

russell

Eve said...

I was unfair in saying "real friends", i just meant long time friends that I've been completely free and open with...im the one with social issues at times, my shyness holds me back and that's why my friendships dont go deeper...