Earlier this week was my daughter’s Student Council banquet – her absolute last high school event. StuCo is where she invested the bulk of her time and what became the close-knit group she calls “family.”
Much of the banquet was directed toward honoring the new graduates. Based off the accolades, along with the video spoof created by underclassmen, it was obvious these seniors greatly impacted the lives of their peers and led the school well.
I remember though sitting at the banquet in years’ past thinking the same thing. Those seniors had also left their mark, as did the ones before them. But no longer are they the ones mentioned, and next year will be no different.
In another four years no one will know the names of the ones who ruled the school in 2016 and set the record for the most money raised for our school’s annual charity week. Future students will rasie the bar and history will continue to be made.
Just like the pictures of our family’s ancestors hanging on the walls of our guest room – some of their names unknown to me. Their personalities and stories long forgotten. Sort of depressing and makes me think – “What’s the point?!”
Wrestling with this exact question and the fleeting life we live is what my husband’s sermon series in Ecclesiastes has addressed. Throughout the book we see the meaninglessness of the things of this life and yet as the book progresses the writer encourages us to make our life count by saying in essence: “If this is life – if life is the vapor we’ve seen it to be, seize the day.”
“Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white (festive clothing). Let not oil be lacking on your head (looking good). Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…” Ecclesiastes 9:7-10a
Life is short, so enjoy it. Choose joy. Live fully present. Invest in others. Work hard. Cherish the little things. Give grace. This is real living the way God intended.
Whether we are remembered in hundred years, or even four, is not the point. To strive for such is to live in vain. God has put us here at this exact time, to live among and enjoy the people he has placed us with.
But when we live self-obsessed, stressed out, over-scheduled and consumed with building our kingdom, we live as if this world is eternal. We miss the real moments and forsake joy because we are striving to make life more than it is.
In other words, because we live as if every day and season should be a mountaintop moment, we grow discontent with who we are with and what we are doing; always searching for and seeking something more.
This may happen simply in scrolling through social media or flippling through a magazine and feeling like our life is “less-than” instead of enjoying what we’ve been given. Or, by elevating the pursuit of more money, our own hobbies or “me-time” we forsake spouses and neglect children, as if the other is greater.
So eat, drink, look nice, enjoy your marriage, relationships, and job as a blessing of life. This is their proper place – to bring pleasure and delight. On the contrary, chasing after these things as if they are LIFE, or making these things the ultimate things (idols), is to waste your life.
True life is found in the One who gives life everlasting. Knowing the eternal gain we have in Christ is what frees us from holding on too tightly to what is here and now. So let’s fix our eyes on Him to see ourselves and our place rightly. And when we do we will glorify him simply by enjoying the gifts he’s given.
