WEEK 02 | PURPOSE

Why are you here, and where are you headed? 

Where will the sum of your days lead in the end?

Come.

Sit a spell with the One who created you on purpose for a purpose. 

He has wisdom to share with you.

  

DAY 08 | HURRYING AROUND TO RISE AGAIN ž

centering thought

“Birth … in-between stuff … death, and we’re done? Is that really all there is?”

encouragement from God’s word 

Read: ECCLESIASTES 1:2-10

devotional direction 

Consider the last seven days. Spiritually speaking, which of the seven would you say was most remarkable? Most distinctive? So impressive—in the truest sense of the word—that you can’t get it out of your mind? What were your encounters with God like on each of those seven days? (Were they any encounters with God?) Which days possessed astounding spiritual revelation? On which days did you find yourself undone during unhurried worship before your God? Which days held divine appointments, when you crossed paths with another person and just knew that it was of God? Which bore challenges you needed to overcome, which was only made possible by God’s strength, not yours?

The futility described in Ecclesiastes isn’t life as it was meant to be lived. The writer, Solomon, instead describes what life is like when life is lived apart from God. The sun rises, the sun sets, the wind blows, and the rivers rise, and all the while we scurry ‘round, settling for uninspired monotony—task list, check mark, sleep. To understand Solomon’s point, simply turn the words upside-down. If everything is meaningless apart from God, then with him, meaning abounds. 

And so: the week you’ve just lived. Is there anything meaningful to report? Completed task lists are certainly fine, but do they impact a human soul? There is a “seeing” that indeed satisfies, which is when we perceive holy God in our midst. There is a “hearing” that leaves us content, which is the sound of surrender having its way. Slow your pace. Lean in. Listen. Look. Your God is mightily at work.

question to ponder

How might today establish itself as remarkable—as distinct—if during the course of its hurrying around, you were to truly encounter God?