18Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat well, drink a good glass of wine, and enjoy their work--whatever they do under the sun--for however long God lets them live. 19And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life--that is indeed a gift from God. Eccl. 5
What do you think of this verse? Recently I read it on a Christian finance blog, and I felt like it was a God-send because I felt like I could really apply it to my life. I, like everyone I guess, sometimes have trouble accepting my "lot in life." I mean, we all have difficulties that we wish didn't exist, right?
My main difficulty lately is just accepting the monotony of my job, which occupies the majority of my waking hours. It's kind of hit me again with the start of another academic year. And I feel like part of enjoying my work, this verse says, is simply accepting my lot. There is no other immediate alternative for me, and I may go through these repetitions for a few more years. But even if my job is not interesting or meaningful to anyone at times (as I always thought whatever I ended up doing would be), it does at least help provide us with the things we need. So if I can just say, thank you God for money to live, health to enjoy, food to eat, and a husband I love, then suddenly I can see that there are many good gifts in my life. And that is something to be happy about.
And I know that it is unwise to post about work online, so I will try to avoid that in the future.
Tomorrow Ryan and I are making a trip to Trader Joe's. Is there one of these in your neighborhood? It's about an hour drive for us, but we've never been, and Ryan's interested to see what kind of coffee they have, and I just want to poke around. Maybe I'll end up trying something new to write about.
And, in keeping with this foodie mood of this post and with Christina's, I'll list five things I like to cook.
1. Tortilla Soup. This is something Ryan and I started making when we were first dating, and now it's like "our" dish.
Chicken+tomatoes+seranno pepper+garlic+lots of salt+lime+bell peppers+ tortilla chips = yum
2. Mango-Lime Icebox Pie, which I tried for the first time last week. It turned out to be pretty tasty. http://food.cookinglight.com/cooking/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=633306
3. Baked chicken with garlic
4. Sweet potatoes
5. Yellowish things. This is something that happens subcousciously. In fact you can pretty much see the trend in the items mentioned above. I often I sit down to a meal like this - baked chicken breast, sauteed yellow squash, and cornbread. You look down at that plate and think, Are we living on Sesame St. and celebrating the color yellow or what? Yikes! I have to fight this tendancy or else it just happens without my thinking about it.
I have really enjoyed blogging with friends lately. We've even successfully sucked Melanie in! I don't know if it's just because it's new that we're all so into it, but I will enjoy it for however long it lasts. I'm so happy to feel more a part of your lives!
And also hello to any silent readers. I just assume you could be out there because I certainly read blogs on which I choose not to comment. If you do in fact exist, then say hi if the whim ever hits you.
Have a good weekend!
September 15, 2006
Ecclesiastes
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4 comments:
Hey hon! I too am enjoying the catching up of everyone's daily life. Hopefully our frequency won't decline as the newness does. It's a nice dose of adult talk for me. Sometimes I'm not a very good playmate for Levi...how long can a girl play "badguys." At least today we spiced things up a bit and played church with our family of play-dough snakes. Superman was the preacher, it was cute. Thanks for the verse from Ecclesiates. I like that one. Like you said I think everyone has a hard time accepting thier lot in life. I always find myself looking toward the future...wondering what our "complete" family will be like and if I'll have a girl, or wondering when we'll be through with financial stresses, or wondering what's next after youth ministry. It's like I'm so curious about how my life will play out that someitmes I think I'm missing my life! My grandma always said that life is what happened while you were making plans. Interesting thought.
Love yoU!
Hi Elisa! I am an occasional silent reader of your blog. I like catching up on the lives of people I knew and liked while at ACU. Have fun at Trader Joe's!
Kate (Barclay)
Strange timing- Rick preached on this verse yesterday and it was one of the best sermons I've heard from him in a long time. You can listen online at rhchurch.org for some more insight and incentive to enjoy life. (The sermon is actually on death. Not depressing, tho.) Love you!
Mel
Chris, Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me. Grandma's wisdom is always something to pay attention to. And it's nice to know that there are others out there playing the same mind games that I do.
Kate, I'm glad to hear from you, and now I have to confess that I've been reading your blog, too. After living awhile away from ACU folks, it's really encouraging for me to remember that you're still out there. And your son is adorable - congratulations!
Mel, I'll have to check that out. Ryan and I still listen to his "growing pains" tapes, which are some of the best lessons I've ever heard. I miss talking about life lessons with you. Yesterday Ryan commented, "You spend a lot of your life just realizing how old you are. I wonder if other people do that." And I thought, well, Mel does! See, I need you around because I know that you would marvel at the fact that the college freshmen in my program this year are the same age as the 8th graders I taught at Brentwood. I just have a feeling that you would find that mind-boggling, too. :)
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