Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

As it turns out, Ecclesiastes is one of the Emo books of the bible.  It's right up there with Job and Lamentations and the other books that probably wouldn't have been written if Prozac had been invented back then.  The last time I sread Ecclesiastes Philip and I had decided to study a book of the bible together.  We'd meet up once a week and discuss a chapter or two.  That time around, our conclusion was "Everything in life is meaningless unless it's about God.  Apart from Him, life has no meaning."  This time I'm reading it differently.  While I find P-diddy and I's conclusion to be no less true, my current life causes me to see it through new eyes.

I'm in a weird stage right now.  At a crossroads, if you will.  For a long time my life, my Christian walk, has looked pretty similar.  I've made changes and taken faith steps, but ministry has pretty much been identical--just within a few varying contexts.  I've been in/lead all girls small group bible studies, done one-on-one weekly discipleship appointments, participated in random-to-nearly-random evangelism.  As I'm moving into a new stage--the married one--things are looking different.  I feel as though Christianity and living a satisfying Christian life is being redefined for me.  I used to have these clear standards to measure myself up against.  I could, in a snapshot, see if I was failing or succeeding at the Christian life.  Or others around me could convince me of one or the other.

My time is oddly spent right now.  I'm mostly reading, helping kids with homework, spending time with my family, getting ready for the big day, talking on the phone.  The other day Philip asked, "What if the best way you can honor God right now is by getting ready for the wedding?"  His thought felt so freeing because honestly, that's what my life is like right now. 

Today in Ecclesiastes I read something startling:  "Enjoy life with the wife you love."  Straight out of the flippen Holy Bible people!  And penned by one of the wisest men in history.  Does that mean that God is pleased with me when I am laughing with Philip?  How radical.  Not the kind they said in the seventies to mean "cool."  The kind that means it's rocking my face off.  I'm not getting any less groovy here so I guess I better move on.

This time around Eccl.  screams "Enjoy life, do good, fear God."  Or as Donald Miller puts it in his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years  (Oh yeah I can check that off my list) "Find a job you like, enjoy your marriage and obey God."  So simple.  So sweet.  So transferrable.  These are things I can do regardless of my life stage and surroundings.  Sometimes I just need to simplify things.  That's why I love the verse on the side of my blog "Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God."

Just because I'm not currently involved in Evangelism and Discipleship the conventional way that I have been in the past, doesn't mean I can't honor God with my heart, mind and actions right where I'm at.