Last week my Life Group started a new study called "Chase" by Jennie Allen and while going through the first few pages of the Leader's Guide, I knew this study was going to rock my world.As I read through "The Vision" portion of the guide I came across a verse that really struck me, one that I'm not sure I'd ever read before.
"I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold,
all is vanity and a striving after wind." - Ecclesiastes 1:14
As I sat for several minutes pondering that verse, I was snapped into a pretty intense reality check. Every worldly thing I'm striving after, everything I think I want is WIND.
AIR.
VAPOR.
And it all has the potential to be gone in an instant. Nothing is for certain, nothing can be depended on.
Nothing but God.
So why do I try so hard? Why do I agonize over pointless things? Why do I get anxious about a life that I am not in control of? Why do I stress when things don't go exactly as I want them to?
Because I keep grasping at the wind instead of holding on to the concrete.
God is the concrete. He's the constant one. The dependable one. The everlasting one. He is the only thing that matters, because He's the only thing that lasts. For all eternity.
I sit and worry about my future and the state of the economy in America. I wonder if I'll ever have the type of life my parents had, the type of life I was blessed to grow up having. One that my parents worked damn hard for, but one that was more comfortable than most.
I get angry over politics, over the injustices in the world. Over the fact that restaurants throw out barrels of food each day while millions of people starve. I ache over the fact that my rental home has a beautiful, luscious, green lawn, while many only dream of having access to clean drinking water.
I fret over this, over that. Over things that, in the end, won't matter one iota. When can I get new tires? When will I have enough money to buy a couch? When am I going to meet a man to partner through life with?
I think about how selfish I sound and how silly it all seems.
What I want to and need to be focusing on is the unchanging things. Things that won't make one bit of difference in regards to my popularity status, things that probably make most people uncomfortable, and things that God calls me to do no matter what the cost.
These things are grounded. These things have the foundation of Christ. And these are the things that I want for my life.
I want to care more about what God thinks of me then what you think of me.
I want to spend more of my time serving His people, then serving my ego.
I want to give more of my money to noble, worthy causes instead of spending idiotic amounts of money on furnishings, clothes, and books that I'll only read once.
The things of this world will fade. The grass will dry up. The food will rot. The clothes will rip & tear.
But He will not change. His love, His grace, His mercy, and HIS MISSION will last forever and ever. And that's what I want to be a part of. That's what I want to hold on to.
