In, But not of ...

“From the outside looking in, you cannot understand it.  From the inside looking out, you cannot explain it”

I have a lot of trouble explaining to ex classmates and old friends who do not have a personal relationship with God what I do.  It just does not make sense to them.  This is not something difficult to understand and it is not that I cannot explain what I do very well. Some think that I should be doing something that is (to them) more meaningful with my life.  We have different views of what a meaningful life is, sadly for them, “more meaningful” means the accumulation of wealth and material.  Even worse, to some it means living reckless lives of drunkardness and explicit lust.  There are unspoken laws of our day that govern our decisions and if we do not intentionally tackle them head on, we will find ourselves deep in a pit of unrighteous living that is; in essence, meaningless.  You see, if you are living according to the unspoken laws, constituted by the majority; chances are that you are leading a miserable and meaningless life.  This observation has made me realize that even though I live in this world of the this day, I am not bound by it’s laws of living.  I have the privilege of having lived both a meaningless life and a meaningful life.  I have tried the anarchical life expected of me by the society of the day, and I am living a life of sure pleasure in changing lives in a meaningful way.

(Psalm 34:8)  Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

There is a man in the bible called Solomon, dubbed as the wisest man to have crossed the face of the earth. This man has tried it all and in the end he concludes that it is like “chasing the wind”.  He has every right to speak to us about meaninglessness and living meaningful lives.  Below is a scripture that is translated in a way that the society of our day will understand:

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 (the message)

I said to myself, "Let's go for it—experiment with pleasure, have a good time!" But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke.

What do I think of the fun-filled life? Insane! Inane!

My verdict on the pursuit of happiness? Who needs it?

With the help of a bottle of wine

and all the wisdom I could muster,

I tried my level best

to penetrate the absurdity of life.

I wanted to get a handle on anything useful we mortals might do

during the years we spend on this earth.

I Never Said No to Myself

4-8 Oh, I did great things: built houses,

planted vineyards,

designed gardens and parks

and planted a variety of fruit trees in them,

made pools of water

to irrigate the groves of trees.

I bought slaves, male and female,

who had children, giving me even more slaves;

then I acquired large herds and flocks,

larger than any before me in Jerusalem.

I piled up silver and gold,

loot from kings and kingdoms.

I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song,

and—most exquisite of all pleasures—

voluptuous maidens for my bed.

9-10 Oh, how I prospered! I left all my predecessors in Jerusalem far behind, left them behind in the dust. What's more, I kept a clear head through it all. Everything I wanted I took—I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task—my reward to myself for a hard day's work!

I Hate Life

11 Then I took a good look at everything I'd done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind.

I do not know what it is you are thinking at this moment, but this sums it all up.  This man had all the things that u could think of.  He was up to date with the latest and in thing, always did as he desired.  The expression used to today is follow your heart; but can you trust your heart?  Follow your mind; can you really trust your mind?  Well, I realized that I could not trust these because they were in a bad place, it was messed up and I needed Christ to transform it for me.  Unless you meet Christ and he shows you what life is all about, you will keep chasing the wind.  You will continue performing a play produced, directed, written by the majority of the day. The stage is set, all eyes are on you and at the end of the show the results are revealed.  Your primary aim should be to please the Judge, not the audience because they do not have a say in the final decision made about your destiny; but the Judge!!!  Up to you!!

God Bless you all, Sello “Scalo” Mmane.