July 11; Day 48

Song of Songs

I can't wait to read Pastor Gary's blog on this book! It ought to be good. Lilies, pomegranites, doves, gazelles, fawns, etc... why is it these words hold so much intrigue and passion. It is because it causes us to invoke the imagination. Instead of saying your breasts are large.... the writer is describing them invoking imagination. The word pictures are fascinating and as a man I have to be careful how much I think about them, lest I get nothing else done today. But let's reflect on this in our own marriages?

• But why is it that I don't talk to my wife like this today?
• How often am I invoking Nicole's imagination in the conversations I have with her? Am I merely describing details or am I asking her to associate two seemingly unrelated things in a new and exciting way?
• Why don't I take time to tell her what I admire about her (and even lust after occasionally)? God created us to love and be enamored with each other. I remember times when we were dating that I used to behave this way - on occasion - but not as a routine matter of behavior.
• What would it do for our marriage if I were to compliment her more and encourage her more and spice up our relationship more?

The bottom line is I've let life get in the way of really living. I've let our conversations remain on the transactional stuff of life (because there is so much of it) and not get into the imaginative stuff of our relationship.

Just recently we re-instituted the concept of "date night" in our marriage. One night a month where we go out just the two of us and do something that we wouldn't normally do. Going to a nice dinner or even to a improv show, these are all things that we've done. It's not so much the event at hand as it is the ability we have to talk about stuff other than "life." While I've even squandered away this opportunity to go deeper in conversation these moments have brought about a sort of "renewal" to our marriage. With the impending birth of our 3rd baby, I pray we will continue this discipline.

I encourage you as I have been encouraged today to start dating your spouse again. Let it start with your words, followed by your actions... and let's see what comes next..... Gazelles leaping in the lilies perhaps????? :)

July 11; Day 48

Ecclesiastes

Carpe Diem... I remember this phrase from the movie "Dead Poet's Society" but it is also the phrase that rings in my head as I read in Ecclesiastes. King Solomon is writing this. He's accumulated more wealth and possessions that any other king at the time. Presumably he is the Warren Buffet or Bill Gates of the day. (Except for the fact that God has given him immeasurable wisdom as well....) Yet, here we read about how pursuit of pleasure is meaningless and how working is meaningless and how even wisdom is meaningless. It seems that all is meaningless and in desperation. So you could leave this book thinking... then what is the purpose of life, why go on living?

I've struggled like this in the past. Even some in the present. Whether it be world events escalating and rumors of wars and nuclear threats in the middle east increasing or trying to figure out if I ever want to return to my family's farm or continue working in a job I know I love, I wonder "what is it all mean anyway... why go on living?" I found myself even the other day thinking, "Lord come quickly because that is the only thing that matters!"

Isn't that what Solomon is trying to get us to realize here... that the only thing that matters is the pursuit of God and obedience to His commands. Everything is meaningless if we do it following our own desires. Yet the same thing can be truly meaningful if it is done out of obedience to God's commands. Is pleasure meaningless? Not unless it is the continual pursuit of pleasure we're after. Is wisdom meaningless? Solomon says that with much wisdom comes much sorrow, the more knowledge the more grief. (Eccl 1:18) so the more we know the more we recognize we don't know but it is meaningless only if we pursue it on our own and not use the wisdom to serve God. Solomon tells us there is a time for everything... and the most important thing he tells us is in Eccl 2:14: "I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing will be added to it and nothing taken from it." Even more pointedly he tells us in Eccl 12:13: "Now all has been heard, here is the conclusion of the matter; Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."

This book is rich... it helps me in so many ways. Yet it really helps me realize that I need to "seize the day"... not on my own - but with the Lord's direction. Obedience to his commands is the only thing that is not meaningless. So why is it so hard to obey his commands. For me it is because I'm not taking time to hear them. I'm too busy striving on my own for everything that is meaningless because I am doing it on my own. I need to reorder my day to hear from him daily and take his commands into my day. Thus helping my day not be meaningless.

Carpe diem my friend... seize the day with meaning!