“Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun – all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” —Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 NIV
No one greets you with “How do you do?” anymore. But if someone did say that to me, I would love to answer that on my best days I wake up with gratitude for the life I live in my home in the imaginary town of Dursley, England, which I share with Christine and our annoying/adorable cats. I think about my kids spread across America, Wales and England. I go for a run around our little town followed by exercises on the climbing frame in the park. I open my computer to do my job as a designer marketing the services of one of the world’s best employer branding agencies and say, “What’s the game today?” Then I laugh because how gloriously ridiculous is my job? I design social posts and presentations and a website for an agency that helps multinational companies market themselves to potential employees. (How did a job like this come to exist?!) I spend the next eight hours creating stuff as if it was the most important activity a human could be doing at that moment. (Yesterday, I animated the word ‘now’.) I take deep satisfaction in doing my work well. I get frustrated when things don’t work the way I think they should. I cheer our team’s successes. At 5:30 PM, I close my computer and forget about it until tomorrow. In one way, the work I do is directly connected to the livelihoods of 40-odd other people and indirectly to thousands. In another way, it’s utterly pointless. I hold both those thoughts in my head and give myself fully to doing the best, most creative work that I can. Because How I do is as important as what I do. But probably I would just say, “I’m good. How are you?”
Speaking of how you do, I recently listened to Rob Bell’s new audio book A Feisty and Sobering Guide to Doing What You Love and (Also)(Still)(Somehow) Paying the Bills. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the best $20 you spend this year. If you need convincing, you can listen to chapter one and chapter eight on Rob’s podcast.
Grow slowly
Jeff
Wow, that Ecclesiastes verse is kind of a killer but I get it lol mixed messages there though. I’m in the midst of planning a wedding so the wearing of white speaks to me and the toil mixed with the joy of every day tasks and responsibilities.
Vanity, vanity, all is vanity some wise man said. I am doing well, very well, thank you 🙏