Journal

A journal; I don't know if you keep one or have ever kept one. My oldest son gave me one in 2003 and I have been writing in it for the last 7 years….the same one! As you open it up I wrote down a statement of what my Journal was to be. This is what I have written. A shade tree; an opportunity for reflection and the effort to capture my thoughts on paper. The palest ink is better than the strongest memory. If it's worth remembering its worth writing down.

Have you ever wondered what kind of person you would be if money was no object? We live in a day when man never earns enough. A woman is never beautiful enough. Gadgets are never modern enough. Houses are never furnished enough. Food is never fancy enough. Relationships are never romantic enough. Life is never full enough. So if you had the money what would you do and how do you think you would act? In other words how would it change you?

Glen Campbell sang a song "Gentle on my Mind" which was released in June 1967. It's a ballad and tells the story about a man who longs to be free. He wants a life that's uncluttered with irritating things like binding commitments and contracts. He is just satisfied to stop off for a night or two, doesn't want anyone to hassle him with talk of a permanent relationship. He is happy just knowing that the "door is always open" and the "path is free to walk." That's sufficient. This man is on a search for another path, another pleasure not something that can or will anchor him down.

There once lived a man who once had the time, the money, and the energy to take such a journey. Not a mind trip, not across the imaginary back roads of his memory but into life itself. Because he was free to walk and because no one was able to restrain him his name was Solomon and he has left us a journal. His journal covers what only most dream of. In his journal he gives us the details of what happen and the results and leaves us with the message "don't waste your time; it will not satisfy! We can find his journal it's called Ecclesiastes. I must tell you that the journey this man took while mind-boggling, left him Defeated, Depressed, and Disillusioned. Only one word is needed to explain his journey "Empty." He also leaves us his motto on the front page of his journal Ecc 1:1
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Ecc 1:2
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. That is the way Solomon described how he felt before he took his journey, while he endured his journey, and after the journey was over. Nothing satisfied. Not so fast Solomon; I want to know what made your journey a pointless an empty one? You were King and had an endless supply of resources and you're telling us that nothing you did had any purpose! How could you make such a statement? Solomon uses a phrase 27 times that tells us why nothing he had or did satisfied; it's the phrase "Under the sun." Life is drab and depressing, hopeless, meaningless simply because he left God out of the picture. I'll write more on tomorrow about this man's journal but this week I want you to think above the sun and don't leave God out of your life. Have a great day, and if you will have the attitude just one day at a time you'll see that in just one week's time you will have had seven great days.