{"id":107,"date":"2014-03-20T15:53:32","date_gmt":"2014-03-20T15:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=107"},"modified":"2014-03-20T15:54:14","modified_gmt":"2014-03-20T15:54:14","slug":"avoiding-a-meaningless-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=107","title":{"rendered":"Avoid a Meaningless Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<style><!--\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n\t{mso-style-unhide:no;\n\tmso-style-qformat:yes;\n\tmso-style-parent:\"\";\n\tmargin:0in;\n\tmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\n\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\n\tfont-size:12.0pt;\n\tfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";}\nspan.text\n\t{mso-style-name:text;\n\tmso-style-unhide:no;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n\t{mso-style-type:export-only;\n\tmso-default-props:yes;\n\tfont-size:11.0pt;\n\tmso-ansi-font-size:11.0pt;\n\tmso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;\n\tfont-family:Calibri;\n\tmso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;\n\tmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;\n\tmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;\n\tmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\n.MsoPapDefault\n\t{mso-style-type:export-only;\n\tmargin-bottom:10.0pt;\n\tline-height:115%;}\n@page WordSection1\n\t{size:8.5in 11.0in;\n\tmargin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;\n\tmso-header-margin:.5in;\n\tmso-footer-margin:.5in;\n\tmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n\t{page:WordSection1;}\n--><\/style>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;\" align=\"center\"><span class=\"text\"><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14.0pt;\">Meaningless! Meaningless!\u201d<\/span><\/b><\/span><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14.0pt;\"> <span class=\"text\">says the Teacher.<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"text\">\u201cUtterly meaningless!<\/span> <span class=\"text\">Everything is meaningless.\u201d (Ecclesiastes 1:2, NIV).<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;\">Ecclesiastes begins as if David\u2019s son, Solomon, was giving us his final conclusions after a long, successful life. What did he learn? He begins with the conclusion: \u201cEverything is meaningless, nothing matters\u201d (Eccl 12:8). As the book goes along, we learn a bit more about what is meant by the phrase \u201ceverything is meaningless\u201d. In the end, everything this world can offer in the way of physical success is meaningless, because this world and all of our achievements in it are doomed to pass away. What matters is love. Human relationships are what matters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;\">Near the middle of the book, the writer tells us that all of our efforts and achievements are to satisfy our natural desires. Unfortunately, our desires are never satisfied (Ecc 6:8). Here we have the ultimate commentary on our culture. All our work, all our scheming, all our attempts to get rich, comfortable, or satisfied by pleasure\u2014they all fail to bring the true happiness our hearts desire, because they are all doomed to pass away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;\">Not so long ago a friend retired from a job after years of success. She spoke to me about the many visitors who came by her office to talk and give best wishes for the future. She ended our talk by saying, \u201cEverything they mentioned was small and personal. Not one of them was a business achievement. People remember you for the small, personal things.\u201d Wisdom remembers to take time for ultimately important things.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;\">Copyright 2014, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meaningless! Meaningless!\u201d says the Teacher. \u201cUtterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.\u201d (Ecclesiastes 1:2, NIV). Ecclesiastes begins as if David\u2019s son, Solomon, was giving us his final conclusions after a long, successful life. What did he learn? He begins with the conclusion: \u201cEverything is meaningless, nothing matters\u201d (Eccl 12:8). As the book goes along, we learn a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=107\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Avoid a Meaningless Life<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CzBH-1J","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}