I just finished studying Ecclesiastes with my children (we have not read it in a long time). I started reading it as a "Monday" , I even warned my children: "it is a very depressing book, but is God's Word... we must study it" at the end, I fell in love with the book I finished reading it as a "Friday" :) When we arrived at the last chapter... I was sad it finished! I wanted to read more, I could not get enough of it.. there is so much to learn, so much hope, so many great warnings and counsel. It finishes leaving you with hunger for more. For a hope for Heaven.
So, living for "Friday" it is a clear chase after the wind. There is nothing exciting... we work all week, just for the great weekend of party and rest. Just to realize, we need to do this again on Monday. There is no end. And after, we start living for the end of the month. What for? just to start again another week, another month, another year.
O, but as I was reading in His beautiful Word: "Then I realized that it is good for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God gas given him-for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work- this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart... God gives man wealth, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them and a stranger enjoys them instead..."Ecc. 5:18 - 6:2
O how much truth in this passage! Even our ability to enjoy our work is a gift from God.This man is so busy working, that he has little time to reflect on his own "issues of life" (what he has and what he doesn't, what he wants, what others think of him, what is the latest on-anything, what someone's life is like compared to mine, why am I better than ...) but keeps himself busy and glad. Not feeling miserable of the lack of free time, of his lack of this or that, or how every day he wakes up to go to work, or "while my friends are having fun, I have to work"...) but his heart is glad. Because he is busy, enjoying God's gift - the ability to enjoy it!
So today, as we start our Monday, let us be glad and rejoice in it. For the Lord made it, gave us this lot and let us not be idle but keep ourselves occupied with gladness of heart. The rest will come. But chasing after the wind will take us no where, but to the place we started. We live for that eternal rest, and the days we are here, God will enable us to accept our lot and be happy in our work.
