Boredom or Fulfillment… Your Choice

Sunday 6-7-15 (Martinez, Argentina)

Scripture reading:  Eccl 4-6    Psalm 18   Eph 3

S.  Eccl 5:16-17  As people come into this world, so they depart. All their hard work is for nothing. They have been working for the wind, and everything will be swept away. Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud — frustrated, discouraged, and angry. NLT

Eph 3:7-9  By God's special favor and mighty power, I have been given the wonderful privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News.  Just think! Though I did nothing to deserve it, and though I am the least deserving Christian there is, I was chosen for this special joy of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I was chosen to explain to everyone this plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.  NLT

O.  King Solomon describes his own life of ease, plenty, many women and surrounded by every possible pleasure.  He was one of the most wealthy men ever to live, yet he presents a fatalistic philosophy where all of a man’s efforts bring no satisfaction.   

In sharp contrast the Apostle Paul writes some of his most joyful letters from a stinking prison where he has been probably sleeping on a cold rock floor.  What has made the difference? 

Solomon was chosen by his father, David, for a high and holy purpose.  He was to build the glorious temple in Jerusalem.  He performed his task.  He reached his goal.  But now he had no more challenges to conquer… and in the long run he surrenders to his pampered environment and seems to end up wallowing in the mud of purposelessness.

The Apostle Paul, too, has been chosen by God to fulfill His divine plan… chosen to build up God’s spiritual temple, where God will dwell by His Holy Spirit.  Paul closes out his last years held prisoner and facing execution… but knowing that his life has had purpose.  So he is thrilled to “live it up” until his final moment on planet earth. 

A.  I arrive at this maxim:  True happiness is finding the will of God and living it to the full no matter where it takes you.  Joy, unspeakable joy, can be found while working your hands to the bone when you know that you are in the center of God’s holy will and plan.  But the life of that person who has felt that God was asking too much of him or her to surrender to God’s divine plan… and has sought out comfort and pleasure instead… so often finds himself or herself wallowing in misery, sorrow and meaninglessness.

P.  Lord, help me to go for Your kind of gold!   Help me to keep my eyes on Your purpose for my life.  Help me to not surrender to my comfortable environment.  Jesus, You found Your “food”, Your satisfaction, Your pleasure, Your total fulfillment in following the will of the One that sent You and by completing that work.  (John 4:34)  May my “food” be to fulfill Your divine plan for my life.  Amen.

Ralph