Your Lot in Life

Read Ecclesiastes 6

While reading today and thinking about the scripture, I noticed Ecclesiastes is an incredibly dangerous book. It speaks a lot of how everything that we gain is pointless, we're all going to die anyway, so enjoy the time that you have. Some of you may take that to mean, "YOLO" and just live in sin because hey, we're just going to die anyway, so might as well live it up.

That's not the point that Solomon is getting at here. What he is getting at is that there is no value in things that the world says to value, and that's all that Solomon has talked about so far.

Just had to clear that up. And now on to Ecclesiastes 6.

God gives some everything and others nothing. Those who have everything a lot of times don't enjoy it. Maybe they're always wanting more and never satisfied with what they have, or it's taken away from them for whatever reason. For example, you work, you get paid, and you have taxes taken out. You earn this money, but you can't enjoy it all because someone takes it away from you. What we gain will, in the long run, be pointless. You get something newer, you have to sell it, you die, someone else will enjoy it, not you.

Some of us strive for more, constantly wanting more, yet a lot of times we won't get it, or we do, and we experience it, but then we die and the experience is lost and turned out to be pointless. Solomon tells us that it's better for a baby to be stillborn and not experience the tragedy that we do. And on the flip side of that, if someone lived for thousands of years and never enjoyed it, their life was wasted. While we experience loss, and life hands us lemons, we still need to find the joy in the life/lot that God has given us.

We, especially Americans, have a problem of constantly trying to find joy in the things that the world tells us to find joy in. Sex, drugs, money, reputation. This is the American dream. I've been there, and I've never been happy in that life. I haven't been rich by any standards, but I've tried to find happiness in so many different things, and never found it. I turned my back on that, and turned to Christ, and I have been filled with joy. I'm thankful and full of joy because of what God has given me, as opposed to what the world tells me to find joy in. There is no joy there. Only in Christ is there joy.

With all of this, no one has a true advantage over another. Maybe in this life you may have some materialistic advantage over others, but are they going to keep you from dying? No. Are they going to save you from your sin? Absolutely not. We all die, we all are judged, and nothing you can do can give you advantage over someone else. So live with what you have, be happy with what God has given you. Believe it or not but you can live without the newest iPhone or videogame system. I have a smart phone, I worked for the money to buy it, and I got it. I pay some for the bill for it. I could get by with a flip phone to communicate with people, but God has blessed me enough to be able to have a smart phone. It isn't the best, but it works, and I like it. I'm thankful for what God has given me, it works just as good as any other phone in communicating with people.

It doesn't matter what you have then. We all die anyway, and who's going to remember us for what phone we had or how much our pants cost? No one. We will be remembered for a bit by our actions, not our stuff. And would you rather be remembered as a follower of God or someone who always wanted more stuff?

All the things that we work for is crap. We don't need it. And when we do get it all we do is brag about it and talk about it, but all that talk is is just us blowing smoke. So is there any advantage to it? Absolutely not. And no matter what we say, no one will know our needs or future. No one will have an advantage over us by what we have and what we say. Only God knows all of these things. And only God will judge us. So why try to impress people by blowing smoke at them about our things?

Accept what God has given you, and find joy in that God has actually given you things. Accept your lot in life.