"Chasing after the wind" is all over the book of Ecclesiastes. And I think on first notice, we all just think of chasing about stuff that we'll never fully catch up to or obtain. When I first started reading through this book more intentionally last week, I found myself brushing this idea off as if I didn't do it that much. I didn't consider money or recognition or relationships or projects or accomplishments to be places and sources of distractions that yield sustainable joy.
Don't get me wrong, many of these things are wonderful and I believe God wants us involved in the details of this life. I believe He wants us to invest in others and projects. He wants us to grow the Kingdom on Earth and create and grow and share.
But the accomplishments of our hands will never be the source of joy and peace our hearts are looking for; they are meaningless in the cultivation of the peace our souls yearn for.
A relationship with God is what brings the peace. A relationship with God is the soil we need for our seeds of dreams and goals and relationships and projects to yield a harvest. I don't know about you, but I want my life to be a field full of beautiful crops and flowers that were planted in times of honest pursuit of God's heart, not the world's.
So as we continue to look through Ecclesiastes, it's important that we remember King Solomon was writing from a place of realizing our doings on Earth pale in comparison to the pursuit of a relationship with God. He's not necessarily saying we shouldn't have these doings on Earth, just that we should look at them through the appropriate lens-- a lens I know I could be more mindful of.