Meaningless or Meaningful

There are so many routine, mundane things that I do every day. I should probably notice their importance even if they are routine or mundane. I should be thankful every time when I brush my teeth. I should be thankful that I have teeth as well as the strength to brush them. There are people who are bed-ridden who would love to be able to do simple tasks like this. There are a bunch of these types of routine things that I do every day that I might not be able to do some day in the future because my health fails, or I simply get too old and feeble.

The activities of my day all fit together to make my life meaningful or meaningless. I don’t usually think that my life is meaningless. Because of my walk with the Lord, I see simple little choices as significant and how it shapes my future. There are times that the trivial tasks of today shows ups significantly in my future. I often wish I had not done some of the things in my past, but unfortunately, I can’t rewrite my history or do any of those things over. I can only make good meaningful choices today that will affect my future.

King Solomon starts off his book of Ecclesiastes in a rather negative way. He will eventually bring it around to make sense, but he starts off with some rather bizarre statements. Check this out….

² “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”

³ What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? ⁴ Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. ⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. ⁶ The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. ⁷ Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. ⁸ Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.(Ecclesiastes 1:2-8 NLT)

I can definitely tell that King Solomon is older and has had lots of experiences as the Kings son and as King of Israel. I think sometimes about the foolishness of decisions I made years ago that are still affecting me today. I often wish that someone had taken me aside and really explained how important financial management was to my future. I wish that a “health nut” had really taught me the value of working out and eating right. Wait a minute, I did have people talk to me about health and wealth, but I didn’t listen. I was “too smart” to pay attention. I wanted what I wanted there and then. So now, I have to work harder because my time is much shorter for sure.

I believe that the choices I make today can be incredibly meaningful, but I will concede that some choices are minute and less meaningless.  I do believe that there is great value in living today with a close eye upon the future meaning of my today activities. I want to make my life count as meaningful, instead of simply counting my meaningless days.

Pressing On!

Dwayne