"But My child be warned: There is no end of opinions ready to be expressed. Studying them can go on forever and become very exhausting. Here is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey His commands for this is the duty of every person..." Ecclesiastes 12: 12-13 (NLT)
Many of you may know that for the past eight weeks I've been on a diet. It has been productive and I have lost a good amount of weight in that time. This particular diet plan is a low carb plan. I won't go into details but just so you understand where I'm coming from. It has worked for me and that's a nice thing. I found the plan on the internet and though I don't jump on every cool sounding thing I find on the internet, this one caught my attention and so, by god's enablement and my wife's tender care, I started it.
Since that time, out of curiosity and by reading the comments readers leave on the articles, I've read a number of interesting sounding diet plans....None of them agree on any point! One says, "Protein-only is the way to go!" Another says, "You have to count calories!" Another proclaims, "Reduce your carb intake!" And yet another says, "If you want to lose weight you must eat cabbage soup only for twenty-three years!" (Yummy! I was tempted to try this one for sure!) Who do you believe? Each plan has a list of success stories and some are better sounding than others. (I'm still searching for the elusive chocolate-only diet. If anyone finds it please send me the link! I know I could follow that plan!)
And then there are cars. Everybody has a car expert in the family or at least close at hand, and most of those folks have strong opinions regarding which make\model to buy. Some will tout the virtues of Ford while spitting in disgust at the mere mention of GMC. Or some sing the praises of Dodge and swear that if you buy a Ford it will fall apart before you leave the lot! And don't get them started on the foreign jobbies. What's a person to do? Maybe by a bicycle; SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT! Now, which bike to buy...Huffy-They're kind of for kids. Then there's Schwinn...How about a European model? Then there's...
And the ever popular subject of politics. You have not seen something divide a group like politics. (Perhaps...religion, but you know how I feel about that word...) The democrats are "big government", the republicans are "pro big business". This group panders to the communists, and this one to the ice cream makers. It is maddening! How do you decide? Just when you think you've got the correct party one of its top members admits to being gay, or to having an affair, or that he prefers Dairy Queen over Cold Stone. (How absurd that is! No way he's getting my vote!) And with each new candidate comes the heart-stopping campaign slogans. "Change and Hope!" "NO NEW TAXES!" "Hope for tomorrow's future the day before yesterday!" I know...that last one is a really good one! Maybe I should run for president.
The pattern begins to emerge. Ask ten people about any given subject and you can expect ten different opinions. It's no wonder that we suffer from so many psychological maladies. This great country we live in offers so many options that no one of us knows all the choices. We have to decide what to eat and what two sides we'd like with it. Do we want to super-size our meal today? The options that we could possibly add to our new vehicle, once we decide which vehicle that is, are astounding. CD player, MP3, DVD player for those long trips with the kids, anti-lock brakes, four-wheel drive, the list goes on and on. If you can imagine it you can add it...for a price of course.
Manufacturers have zeroed in on this concept and offer "accessories" to make your purchase more user-friendly or more convenient to carry. And the more we buy into these things, the more cluttered our lives become. And the more cluttered our lives become the more complex. With complexity comes frustration and confusion. And when these have run their course we find our minds have turned to mush and once an hour a friendly man in white scrubs comes to our padded room to give us the drugs that help us to cope with the insanity that we have immersed ourselves in. In a strange way there is peace.
But...there is an easier answer a better answer and Solomon 3500 years earlier had it right. He made trial of all that we've discussed with equivalents of his day and discovered that they did not hold any more satisfaction than we find today. He even discovered despair. He found nothing that held any lasting meaning or significance, except one thing.
After summing up all his thoughts his conclusion was that life is tough and can be big, hairy, and ugly but if a person focuses their attention on God and obeys His commandments that person will find peace and contentment even in the whirlwind of this life.
I would like to inject one personal thought: God has always desired a relationship with you. He won't force Himself on you and He won't shout and scream to get your attention. Slow down. There is nothing more important than to start your day with a time of quiet before the Giver of Life, the Creator, our Enabler: God Almighty. He desires to spend time with you. Think about that statement for one moment. HE DESIRES TO SPEND TIME WITH YOU. Can you think of anything more amazing than that truth? The time is never spent in vain. You will be strengthened, encouraged, invigorated, revitalized, and loved. Isn't what God has done for you worth a few minutes of your busy day? Try it. You will find the value beyond anything a few extra minutes of sleep could ever provide.
1 comment:
I have always found in interesting that Solomon had, and tried it all. He had so much cash he even built his own parks. Who builds themselves their own park? Did it have a jungle gym, and a tornado slide? He had so much cash that he could have had his own "tornado slide cooler" (someone who would cool the shiny slide metal as to not burn your buns on sunny hot days), now that is living it large. In the end Solomon realized that the only thing with any real value was to fear God and obey his commands. Nice article Greg, I won't add any red marks.
Sean Buckley
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