Vanity! Vanity!-- Life is Meaningless.

 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.” Ecclesiastes 1:2

 Thank you to the Holy Word and Pastor Aaron's sermon the past two Sundays, I have found meaning in the meaninglessness of this past week.  This past week was crazy for me.  I was up everyday before 8 am and slept no more than 5 solid hours per night.  I had class from 8 to 5 Monday, Tuesday, & Thursday with little breaks.  I had reading assignments galore.  Wednesday and Friday I was at work from 8 am to either 2 or 4.  Each night I had a church or crusade commitment and made in home each night no earlier than 10:30 p.m. only to find myself purely exhausted.  What was the point?  I felt like a piece of plastic wrap being stretched from here to the capital.  I couldn't think.  I had a million things on my mind; a million things to do; I felt like everyone I knew was texting me/calling me-- many to ask me to do something.  I was overwhelmed and by last night I felt like I had 1,000 lbs. of bricks on my chest.  Tonight I felt convicted to STOP.  Be still and fall to my knees in worship at Christ.

As I reflected on the week I wondered what I really got out of all of it.  I had done so much, but it was all a blur.  All at once I felt very depressed.  Very overwhelmed.  What was the point?  All of it all seemed to have been done in vain... meaningless.  For a few hours I dwelt in self-pity and hated life.  Yuck.  Then I recalled Pastor Aaron's sermon and the book of Ecclesiastes.  The author of Ecclesiastes felt a similar way thousands of years ago:

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. ¹⁸ I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. ¹⁹ And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. ²⁰ So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. ²¹ For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. ²² What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? ²³ All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless. - Ecclesiastes 2: 17-23

"What do people gain from all their labors
   at which they toil under the sun?
⁴ Generations come and generations go,
   but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets,
   and hurries back to where it rises" .. all is meaningless.

 Wow so this is the Bible?  Is God really saying that all is meaningless? That life is vanity?  That the sun sets and rises-- days pass and it is all for nothing??!?!?!?

NOOOOOO!

It's the opposite everything under the sun is meaningless when it is not done for God's glory!  I realized today, how much I truly NEED and thirst for Christ.  How much more I need to desire Him and treasure HIM!! His death on the Cross is the only thing that can really fulfill-- really provide-- the only thing that gives hope and meaning to us-- to life-- to this world.  

He is the reason that we should toil-- and He is the reason that we should dance.  He is the reason that we should smile.  He is everything.  Everything was created by Him and for Him!!

"Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.    
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,^[e]
 16 for through him God created everything
      in the heavenly realms and on earth.
   He made the things we can see
      and the things we can’t see—
   such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
      Everything was created through him and for him." Colassians 1

Ponder on that truth for a moment...."He existed before everything" and " Everything was created through Him and for Him"

IT'S NOT ABOUT US!!! It doesn't matter what I did this past week... knowledge will pass, my labor will fade and even my "ministry" means nothing with out Christ.  There is amazing freedom in that!  Sometimes I feel like someone try to run a show on my own-- putting it together- organizing it-= planning it--- I feel like a chicken with my head-cut off running in meaningless circles with no clear what the heck I am doing.  I confess-- I had lost site of the Cross.

Then I remember whose show it is.  It is God's.  It is the Creator of the Universe.  It is Christ's.  

***Brick of humility*** --- ooops that's why my life is in turmoil.. I am trying to run HIS show...  

I heard Him today say: "Katherine, my child.  My daughter.  Relax.  I got it.  Sit down and dwell in my presence.  Be still. I have it under control.  After all I am God."

I almost blush in embarrassment.  Oh yeah-- You ARE GOD! and thank God that He is God!! That I can rest in Him and know that the show will go on-- that it is His show and that obedience to Him and submission and surrender to His Spirit gives great peace--- it makes life so rich, so full so MEANINGFUL!!!!

Praise God!  

Please if you are like me, let God run the show.  It's His.  There is meaning in life.  It is Him.  Only He can fulfill.  Trust in HIM!

Psalm 46:10

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
   I will be exalted among the nations,
   I will be exalted in the earth.”