24 There is nothing better
for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God; 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind. Ecclesiastes 2:24-26
We come to the end of chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes. The author who calls himself The Teacher and identifies as a son of KIng David, opened his book lamenting that life is meaningless. He realized the circles of life, of history, of our days and it all seemed meaningless. He tried pleasure and found that empty too. He pondered how death awaits all and after our deaths fools may inherit our work and squander all we worked so hard for. Toiling to create something a fool cannot care for feels pointless.
Similar to the end of the book, the Teacher concludes that enjoying our work, having sufficient food and drink, all comes from God. So perhaps the question to ponder before the Lord today is to ask ourselves what “toil,” what work has God given to you? Perhaps fold a sheet of paper in half and on one side write the blessings of your work and on the other side write down the challenges. The challenges could be points of prayer as you consider what “attitude adjustments” you might need. The blessings could make for points of praise. Acknowledging God’s hand in your life is always a challenge to honest reflection. Blessings.
On the Way to Wonder 