The pursuit of happiness, the hunt to end pain – much of this all can seem meaningless. Does pain end? Is happiness something that is attainable?
Why do I waste my words talking about such ugliness?
My days on this earth are numbered. I won’t be here forever and I know this is not my eternal home. I’ve had to pass through this place on my way to eternity. I’m not staying here, so I have no fear of telling the truth.
The truth is ultimately what will be revealed for each one of us. We can do it here or wait until the time God does it for us.
I’d rather do it now so I can live in freedom, away from the chains that have bound me.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
Ecclasiastes 12:14 (NIV)
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
This final judgment gives me hope. It silences the ugly voices from my past that laugh at me in disdain when I think I’m going to move on with integrity and have anyone care about my story.
I can bring into full scope the things that have happened to me because God has been and is my witness. I am not standing alone.
What a thing of beauty that is. I am not alone. This battle is not mine, but His.
I will leave it all in His strong capable hands.
There is another beautiful message in Ecclesiastes. Life can be meaningless for all people. Whether we’ve experienced severe loss or we have not, the struggle to find meaning, peace and fulfillment is difficult for all people.
Maybe just a little bit more difficult for those of us that have suffered severe injury at the hands of another.
I can rest in this:
18 This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.
Ecclesiastes 5:18
The book of Proverbs says it best, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” Toilsome labor sounds better than this.