Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Just in case you've forgotten the gyst (pretty sure its drilled into your head by now as it is in mine!) -
1. Evil people may prosper but it doesn't mean they are happy
2. Suffering is not the worst thing that can happen to us.
3. Wisdom endures even when it doesn't understand.
4. Life is not fair and God (almost) never gives us answers.
5. Eat chocolate ice cream today cause tomorrow might be BAD!

SO ... conclusion - Don't let what you cannot understand destroy what you can enjoy and what you know to be true!!!

Ecclesiastes 8 ... the highlights
Who is like the wise man?
Who knows the explanation of things?
Wisdom brightens a man's face
and changes its hard appearance. (v. 1)

For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter ... (v. 6)

Since no man knows the future,

who can tell him what is to come?  (v. 7)

So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.  (v. 15)

... then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it. (v. 17)

Today's chapter was entitled "Poise in Life" ... because it dealt with what we do in the tough times.  TN defined "poise" to mean that you do not shift due to outside circumstances.  It's like flying by the panel rather than the view.  Now, I don't know a lot (read "nothing" here) about flying planes.  But I DO know that pilots have to be able to depend on the instruments even when they cannot see or when what they see doesn't line up with what the instruments are telling them ... and I for one, am glad they do!!  That's what today's chapter was trying to get at.  AGAIN, there are just LOTS of things we don't understand in this life... and lots of tough stuff to wade through.  We might get it some day ... we probably never will, and one day I think we won't even care anymore.  We're really very simple and our perspective soooooo limited.  How in the world can we presume to understand how our little piece fits into God's grand scheme?  Still we seek to know (inquiring minds and all).  Sometimes we can make ourselves crazy with that drive to know and understand.  But still, most of the time we're just not going to get it.

Added a new phrase to the Ecclesiastes mantra today ... did you catch it?  Don't let what you cannot understand destroy what you can enjoy and what you know to be true!!!  Our quest for answers can make us forget or not believe what we already KNEW.  I do it all the time.  Let's take it one step further.  When I worry, stress, fear, I am forgetting what I know.  All of those things just say "God, I don't trust you!"  Yep, that's what they say.  I KNOW you are all-knowing, wise, loving, powerful, and merciful.  But we let what we KNOW get swallowed up and sometimes even destroyed by what we cannot understand.  I have some beautiful friends who are walking through some of life's hardest struggles right now.  There are days that I'm not sure where they find the motivation and strength to get out of bed, let alone get dressed, take care of kids, go to work, or be a friend to someone else in need.  But they are flying by the instruments.  They have refused to let the hurts that they (and the rest of us) cannot understand destroy the life they can enjoy and what they know to be true of their God! I want to walk as bravely and with the poise that they exhibit!

This weekend is our annual BCM girl's retreat.  It's always one of the best weekends of the whole year!  For the last three years we've had 50-75 girls get away for that weekend!  We've been planning and preparing for this weekend since last fall.  Last night was our final deadline to sign up and go and we have ... 16!!!  16!!!!  I've come up with every conceivable reason why our numbers could possibly be that low ... but the bottom line is I really don't know.  Really probably never will ... but last night at dinner as the three of us planning the event sat down for last minute conversations, we came to a place where we had to have a plan B.  What number of participants do we need to do this event.  What number do we need to go all the way to the camp we have reserved in NC?  At that point, we only had SIX who had signed up and paid (and while we were worried, we weren't super worried because BCM is a last minute kind of place!  We could have had 50 by the end of the night!!)

Well, all of that to say, that the 16 of them are now retreating to my house.  We're going to cancel the camp (too big, too far, weather is iffy and we lose more money by going ...) and bring those 16 to my house for one BIG slumber party of a retreat weekend.  Not gonna lie ... 10000s of details and things are swimming through my head.  We are switching gears on sooooo many levels and I'm trying to draft a new plan on paper and in my head.  I am excited because I think that God is doing something amazing that we never dreamed.  BUT, those expectations creep back in here and we feel like an epic FAIL that things have not gone according to plan ... OUR plan (yeh, I know!) SO, today I am going to listen to the wisdom of Solomon and not let what we cannot understand (or control) destroy what I can enjoy and know to be true!

But for today, I think I better forego the chocolate ice cream for some healthy living ... that biggest loser thing is not going in the direction I'd hoped!  :0)  Too many ice cream worthy days, I suppose!