Day 15: One Small Choice

Today's devotion and Scripture hit home pretty hard, as they both speak to my thorn, which has been digging into my side again lately. The devotion talked about the small choices that we make and how serious the consequences can be. Things that we think trivial at the time can turn out to be devastating later. I know that my sinful habit is wrong, but I just brush it aside, telling myself that it is no big deal. But it is sin, so God sees it as a big deal. Plus, who am I to say that it is inconsequential? Only God knows the future results of our actions. So, I need to work on this. Thankfully, the principle works in reverse: good deeds that seem insignificant can make a world of a difference to others or even ourselves down the road.

Today I began Ecclesiastes, reading the first three chapters. Solomon starts with his great proclamation: "Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." He is right, of course. All things of this world amount to nothing.

Solomon continues by going into greater depth. He talked about how he devoted himself to studying and gaining knowledge, but found that the more one knows, the more grief he has. He then turned to worldly pleasures, securing for himself everything he could. Since he is Solomon, this means that he acquired EVERYTHING that his time period had. He had riches. He has servants. He had entertainment. He had palaces and vineyards. He even had a harem. But he soon came to realize that none of it amounted to anything. He then pondered over wisdom and folly, and concluded that wisdom is indeed better than folly, but also noted that the wise man and the fool share the same fate. So they too are meaningless. He considered work, but found it to be the same way.

Ecclesiastes 3 goes on to say that there is a time for everything and goes into detail on this subject. At the end, he speaks what I believe is the wisest sentence I have ever heard: "So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot." I think it's best to just leave that alone without expounding on it.