My week has pretty much lined with the book of Ecclesiastes…

Ecclesiastes is not the most upbeat book in the Bible because it deals with the reality of death, injustice, suffering, foolishness, and other such fun topics. Often times the book carries a very somber tone and if you don’t believe me just read the second verse. The second verse in the book starts out with “Absolute Futility” (HCSB) or “Vanity of vanities” (NKJV) and this should give us insight as to where it is going. My week started out with losing my favorite Bible, a screaming angry child because he was just in bad mood, dozens of conference calls at work, not nearly enough money to make me happy in my bank account, and other general annoyances. I am not complaining but just saying it was one of those weeks that makes you go UG. You know the kind of week where you wonder why you even try because for everything thing that goes right something else goes horribly wrong.

We all have those weeks and sometimes we all have those weeks that turn into that month, it is inevitable. I found it funny that for my morning devotion I was reading Ecclesiastes because it followed quite well. I would like to sit here and tell you that at the end of this week everything turned around and I found myself sitting high on the mountain top. That by the end I found myself feeling and living like more than a conqueror and that I everything turned around. It did improve but not by much but what did change was the way I looked at it.

The last two verses in Ecclesiastes say, “Let us hear the conclusion… Fear God and keep His commandments…For God will bring every work into judgment…Good and Evil.” That is comforting and scary. The main thing I take away from that is that God still reigns and my job is not to weigh my life out by the good and bad days but by following and trusting God. I can rest in the fact that when life is sunshine and rainbows God is still God and when life is thundering and lightning God is still God.

There are hard days, weeks, even months but the fact remains that I cannot see the whole picture but God can. There are no guarantees in life and we are but a vapor but God is still God. That does not make the hard days good but it does remind me this is not the end.

Just a thought,

Mike