All is Vanity. . .



Coming back from Canada yesterday, I listened to Ecclesiastes on my audio Bible app.  

Written by the richest man, in all likelihood the world has ever known.  From a Google search "Wealth of Solomon in today's dollars:

King Solomon's total net worth is estimated by economic historians to be between $2 trillion and $3 trillion in today's U.S. dollars.

I don't know that we've yet had our first official trillionaire?  In a melancholy mood he writes this book of perspective on his life, of the fruitlessness of all his life's work and efforts.

I think to my own life, mirrored in the engineers who trained me. . . Jim Tweedy, Frank Whitmyer, Charlie Carlton. . . giants of their day, but with my passing no one will have any memory of their names, and their huge contributions to the workholding field. . . Now only digitized signatures of long gone paper drawings. . . rarely viewed. . . all vanity as the preacher said so eloquently.  Their earthly works, all fading into the same dust that their bodies have long departed to.

He ends his little book:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (NKJV) Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man's all. 14 For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.

From the perspective, of one in the final chapters, or maybe pages of his earthly book, Ecclesiastes deeply spoke to me yesterday. . 

None of this means anything, other than the impact we can have in the lives of others.  Eternity is a looooong time. . .

I once heard it described as thus:

Once every hundred years, a bird perches on the pinnacle of a tall mountain, and sharpens its beak.  When by that sharpening the mountain is worn down to nothing, that is but one grain of sand on the beach of eternity.

Isaiah 55:1-3 (NKJV) "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. 3 Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—The sure mercies of David.

We must work to feed and clothe ourselves, but there is no lasting significance of our daily efforts beyond that.  Work to deepen your relationship with God. . . Work to help others find God, and fall in love with Him such as you have. . .These are the things of lasting. . . eternal significance.

I thank You my God. . .

Help me love You more completely. . .


<3

Dave 


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