A Life Well Lived

Our ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship) completed Tommy Nelson's Ecclesiastes Study, A Life Well Lived yesterday. I am a huge Tommy fan and was extra motivated to make it to Sunday School, er, ABF each week to learn from him. Yesterday he summed up the main points of the book of Ecclesiastes and I'd like to share them with you. Monday seems like an extra perfect day to throw these out - mine has been textbook bad today.

1. LEARN OF GOD AND OBEY HIM.
Dig in. Find out Who you worship, discover the depths, drink in His awesomeness and know Him. But don't stop there. Obey the One you call God. Nothing less will do. The world will do its best to woo and draw you into the shallow enticements it so easily throws around. Learn that partaking is fleeing in fulfillment, dimming your wisdom and hindering your ability to navigate through life.

2. DON'T ASSUME BAD THINGS WON'T HAPPEN.
I think that if you have been walking with God for any significant time, you know this to be true. The fairytale conversion, happily ever after-garbage has been discarded and you now know that it rains on the just as well as the unjust. Also, bad things happening aren't necessarily consequences to your actions or sins. This world is hell-bent and we're stuck, come what may, for the time being.

3. WHEN BAD HAPPENS YOU REST IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.
You don't have to be proactive and try to sort through it all, like rubble after a bomb. You have no control, anyway. Relinquish and rest. And remember the God you have learned of. This is not a charge to suck it up, it is a call to submit and remember through your pain, the hope we have been promised. I just love the picture of resting. Think Psalm 23.

4. WHILE RESTING IN GOD, HOLD YOUR COURSE BY DOING RIGHT.
I find this idea profound, and profoundly simple. If the sun has come up another day in your world, you know what to do. Do it. Just because the wheels have come off, your call to morality and obedience and self-control have not been suspended. I find that focusing my efforts on others frees me from the pit I feel I am in. My husband has a proverb on his computer that states, "If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!"

5. LIVE BOLDLY.
Don't worry about what is going to happen. In the wisdom you possess by knowing the True God, grab life and go! It's better to be out there risking it, knowing God has you securely in His hand than cowering in fear at the one life God gifted to you. I gotta seriously work on this one. My backbone is primarily made up of fear.

6. ROCKY ROAD! (Enjoy Life)
Work hard, stay the course, then PLAY HARD! Enjoy what life has to offer. The grace that covers us through Jesus has widened that narrow gate so that we might live freely, with no concern for piety or self-righteousness. Wisdom has revealed to us that we are lowdown, dirty sinners made righteous by Another's sacrifice. With that knowledge, let us embrace that grace and be about the business of living!

Folks, I think people will want to know our Great and Mighty God if our lives reflect these truths!