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Job 9:5-9 (NIV)
⁵ He moves mountains without their knowing it
and overturns them in his anger.

⁶ He shakes the earth from its place
and makes its pillars tremble.

⁷ He speaks to the sun and it does not shine;
he seals off the light of the stars.

⁸ He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads on the waves of the sea.

⁹ He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

Sometimes in our quest for knowledge and answers, we explain God away and sideline him.  Moving mountains and earthquakes (v5-6) are understood by fault lines.  Science (and Wikipedia!) give us all the answers.  The Bear, Orion and Pleiades (v9) have their own Wikipedia article telling us everything we ever wanted to know about each constellation and its history.

But don’t forget how big and amazingly creative our God is. He is the creator of all the things that can be described, dissected and analyzed until we have all the answers.

What if you read these Wikipedia articles and instead of knowing them to be written by educated scientists in the field, you viewed them as written by God?

In a society of smart people, that is the one thing we _can’t_ forget.

Dear Jesus,

I want to be able to soak and bask in the knowledge that you created the Heavens and the earth.  I want to stand in awe of your creation.  That the stars and sun in the sky are the work of your hands.  I want to forget about science and have that simplicity in understanding.

The cool, crisp winter breeze (does Florida have a winter breeze?).  The thick blades of grass that hurt to walk barefoot on.  The giant tree that I’m afraid will fall on my building at any time.

Those are yours.

I want to be able to smile from ear to ear when I see and experience your creation knowing you placed them there.

I want to forget adult etiquette and tell strangers how “awesome” and “cool” you are because you created the large and in charge banana spider by my mailbox.

For some reason God, I just want to have a grin on my face thinking about all this.

I laugh in the face of science! Hah!

. . . to be content in Jesus.

Dear Alex,

It’s not that complicated.  Sometimes I wish I could take that brain of yours and drop kick it a couple blocks. I almost did it once. Once in awhile I let myself think that’ll actually knock some sense into you. You’re lucky I’m a patient God.

Anyway, let me try to help a son out. It’s time for a little father-son talk.

I remember in kindergarten and 1st grade you were in remedial math and reading classes.  Look at how far you’ve come! I’m proud to say you lived up to the Asian stereotype. You are good at math! And look next to your bed.  How many books do you have down there? 11. Yes, I count the hairs on your head and the books by your bed.

Learning takes time. But it will be worth it.

Don’t worry kiddo.

Love,
God

I got my report card today.  I flunked.  Pretty badly.

James says if you need wisdom, ask for it (James 1:5).  He also says not to doubt you’ll receive it when you ask for it (James 1:6).

The visual he uses of a person doubting works pretty darn well in my case.  Like a wave toseed back and forth.  One day you think God is telling you to go this way, the next day you think he’s telling you to go the the opposite way.

A butterfly flaps its wings and all of a sudden what you once believe God spoke clearly and audible about must have just been indigestion. It was your “fleshly self” that was speaking.

James 1:8 is another good description of where I’m at.  Double-minded and unstable.  You’d think having two minds would make you smarter.

Nope.

That second mind is about as useful as a wart growing out of your right foot’s ring toe.

I read in Ecclesiastes 4 this morning.  Up until this point in the book, King Solomon has gone through a list of things that are “meaningless” to him.  It’s a pretty interesting list including: everything (yes, he says everything), wisdom, pleasures, folly, toil, oppression and even friendliness.

You’ll notice that even things we would consider good (e.g. wisdom and friendless) are meaningless.

What seems to be the prevalent theme so far is while everything is meaningless, the only thing left to enjoy is a man’s work.

But that poses a problem.

Ecclesiastes 2:24 (NIV)
²⁴ A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. […]

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13, 22 (NIV)
¹² I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. ¹³ That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.

²² So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work […]

If that’s the theme, it seems to contradict Ecclesiastes 2:17-23 where King Solomon says even our work is meaningless.

So how is it that our work is meaningless, yet we are supposed to find satisfaction in it?

The key is to notice what type of work is meaningless.

Work is meaningless when we see it as a “task of gathering and storing up wealth” (Ecclesiastes 2:26).  2:17-23 says we can’t take what we work for with us when we die.  We’re forced to hand it over to someone else.  Therefore, it is worthless for us to be working for materialistic, earthly or financial gain.

Work that is not meaningless, however, is “from the hand of God” and “endures forever.”

Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 (NIV)
24 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, ^25^ for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

Ecclesiastes 3:14 (NIV)
14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.  […]

It is important that the work of our hands are actually the hands of God and not our own. This is the only type of work that will endure forever, change lives, leave a legacy and impact the world.  It is only the type of that will give us true satisfaction and enjoyment.

How’s your work life been lately?