Ecclesiastes Chapter 6

1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy upon men:

2 a man to whom God giveth riches, wealth, and honour, so that
he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth
him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it; this is vanity,
and it is an evil disease.

3 If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so
that the days of his years are many, but his soul have not enough of
good, and moreover he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is
better than he;

4 for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;

5 moreover it hath not seen the sun nor known it; this hath gratification rather than the other;

6 yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, and enjoy no good; do not all go to one place?

7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

8 For what advantage hath the wise more than the fool? or the poor man that hath understanding, in walking before the living?

9 Better is the seeing of the eyes than the wandering of the desire; this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

10 Whatsoever cometh into being, the name thereof was given long
ago, and it is foreknown what man is; neither can he contend with Him
that is mightier than he.

11 Seeing there are many words that increase vanity, what is man the better?

12 For who knoweth what is good for man in his life, all the
days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a
man what shall be after him under the sun?

***

I tend to be a restless human, in constant need of motion, rarely able to simply relax and do nothing. Even if I'm not physically moving, my mind is going a million miles an hour.

It works that way on a big-picture level too. The worst kind of hell for me would be to stuck in a house in suburbia surrounded by a white picket fence, knowing I would be there for 30 years. I don't care if Charlize Theron comes with the place – still not going to happen.

But constant motion can take its toll, too. Enough is never enough. I enjoy every moment, every experience, but there's always something new on the horizon.

Lately I have been challenged with my attempts at bending the spoon – or more specifically, with bending the two divergent paths in the woods back into one.

I'm thankful for wise friends, who know me well enough to, each in their own unique way (which thankfully I also understand) slap me figuratively upside the head and tell me to keep going.

Sometimes the advice is wrong, or I disagree with it, but it's in that disagreeing that I realize what my real decision was – and should be – all along. And I do that.

The temptation is always very real to take that hard right turn and completely go a different direction. Sometimes I think that'd be fun, if for no other reason than it'd blow a lot of people's minds. "How could he do that!"

My priorities are not always what the world is led to believe, I guess.

But there is something to be said for stewardship. And of that I am cognizant, and responsible.

Basically what that passage in Ecclesiastes is saying (well, the part I highlighted, v. 9) is "bird in the hand…better…two in the bush". In plain English, it's saying to me – right when I need to hear it – "yo, buck up dude, don't be an idiot. it wouldn't matter if you were there or there or there, you're still going to be looking for the next fix, and if you leave here for there you'll be thinking about here when you're there. just enjoy the here, here."

I am doing that. It's just – yeah, there's always that "it's just that ________".

But here's the thing. That push-pull challenge is not such a bad thing, when controlled by me, when directed by logic and with the end goal of my life in mind.

When harnessed properly, the friction between differing directional pulls simply creates heat, which fuels the furnace for continual productive motion forward.

Ultimately, if God's got things under control and I'm listening, the worst I can do is screw up and have to readjust my direction. But at least I'm moving in a consistent direction, which is better than bouncing off the walls like a light-drunken Cicada…