I can remember a long time ago in a galaxy um… anyway, I had a teacher that told me:
“Scott, I am not asking you to be the smartest in the class, I just want you to try harder”
To be honest, I didn’t really listen back then but as I was reading a few verses in the bible I came across Ecclesiastes 5:18-20:
18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. 20 He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.
It suddenly dawned on me. What am I trying to achieve working as hard as I do? Am I working to become something else, provide something else for my family? What I my goal? Maybe we all want to be the best in class, maybe even some of us don’t mind being the worst in class.
Reading the verse above, I believe God just want us to be happy doing what we do and content with what we have. Never looking back on what we should have had. God knows our future, it just makes more sense to trust in God with our future than to stress and worry over what we can achieve by our own acts. Which brings me to Matthew 6:24-34:
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[a]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
By stressing over making more money to achieve more, what do we truly achieve? Answer: STRESS! We all know how well that works out. Now hold on a minute, I am not saying stay at home and watch football until the power gets cut off. What I am saying is: apply Gods infallible word to everyday life, do your best at whatever it is that you do and leave the rest up to God. If you are a programmer, then program your heart out! If you are a garbage collector, pick up that trash with enthusiasm and a smile! Do your best and God will first give you contentment followed by happiness! Does this mean that we should not plan for a brighter future? By all means NO! Go to college, attend that seminar, invest in your future but just don’t be consumed by it.
In Christ,
Scott Smith