Brief Thoughts Before Boarding an Airplane

I've spent the last week in New York on business, and I could not help but put my experiences in the perspective of the wisdom of King Solomon.

"He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother's womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil--this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart."

--Ecclesiastes 5:10-20

It is easy to be pulled in certain directions by the promises of wealth and abundance, but it doesn't satisfy. John D. Rockefeller was asked how much money would be enough for him and he said "just another dollar." Houses and cars and clothes and jewelry are luxuries but they are potentially corrupting luxuries. The only way to approach them is to enjoy them but not cling to them. To recognize that they are not necessities. The real necessities in life are the people we love and who love us, and the impact we have in each other's lives. That is the meaning of genuine agape. All the rest is vanity, and striving after the wind. Instead, so often, these vain things drive wedges between us and our loved ones, they cause worry and strife. Why should we so strap ourselves to being beholden to possessions?

Let's keep our focus on Love, the greatest good, the manifestation of God in us, and when the luxuries of life follow (if indeed they do) then we can enjoy them with the proper perspective.