Ecclesiastes gets a bad rap for being “depressing” or “melancholy” or whatever. But I find it a fascinating and focusing read. What are we giving our time to? Is it something worthwhile or another bullet on Solomon’s massive list of things that are “meaningless”? To that end, this passage from the end of Chapter 5 is fantastic:

To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God. God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past.

Ecclesiastes 5:19b-20 (NLT)

I was nostalgic from an early age. I think wistfully about playing with my Hulk Hogan and Junk Yard Dog toys while watching the Paul Daniels Magic Show in the mid-1980s. And sometimes it makes me sad at what is gone. But the great irony is that while I was pining for a time that is gone I missed the time I was IN… then I would wish to have that time back. And so the cycle would continue where I was constantly longing for that which is gone rather than enjoying it while I had it.

In comes Solomon to encourage us to work and accept our lot in life. Because we are so happy in the moment we HAVE RIGHT NOW, that we are not distracted by what we used to have in times long past!

Friends, enjoy what you have. Don’t be discontent wishing you had more. Don’t be heartbroken longing for things lost to time… before long that is how you will think of TODAY. If you root your joy in the Lord that contentment is much easier to harness and cling to.