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| by: Jeff Gossett | September 3, 2009 |
Solomon wrote that there is a time for every thing. He also wrote that there is nothing new under the sun. He looked at all of his accomplishments as vanity and it is something that is not hard to do yourself. When you truly believe the gospel and live according to it, does anything really matter beyond what you do for Christ? I know it sounds so cliche but it is so true once you think about it. The only rewards you will end up with for eternity are those rewarded in heaven and those are received once you are saved and fulfill God’s will and that will usually entails serving others. So basically what you do for yourself outside of submission to God will decay. Let me give you some examples.
I have recently seen several elderly people that I have known (one being my grandfather that I have never gotten the chance to get to know) get put into assisted living houses. Two of them in particular has had their entire life savings get poured into these homes and one of them may have to sell their house to pay for this assisted living home. Once that money dries up they may have no where to go. I started thinking of that dilemma and it dawned on me. These people worked their entire life to give their money to an assisted living home and their children will receive no fruit from their hard work. I am not saying their life was a waste, I am just saying everything that they have worked for will be gone. Such a sad ending to a hard working life. So much money is spent to keep people alive well past their years of a decent standard of living and yet the same end is met. Why is it such a bad thing to die if your hope is in Jesus? Me, I would rather check out sooner than later to be with my Father.
Another example, is one of my ex-employers died in a horrible motorcycle crash. His son took over the family business. Four years later, I went to the funeral of the son. He had died in a automobile accident and another son took over the business. As Solomon also states, you never know if a fool or a wise man will inherit your work. Most of the time a fool does and squanders what the other person spent their entire lives building. What a depressing end to it all. All work ends up for naught in the long run.
I know I am repeating what most of you know. I just wanted to point out that Solomon hit the nail on the head that many years ago. The only thing that endures is the spiritual. So instead of the rat race of life that people tend to run, why not run the race for a prize that never decays, rots or can be given to someone else? Why seek pleasure to only see it be for nothing? We strive so hard to gain things in this world only to be given to someone else and usually we can’t control who will end up with it. The world truly means nothing and I hope that more and more people live with that perspective. Their world will change and they won’t be disappointed anymore of the “things” they don’t have. Live as though you are passing through, not setting up residence.