I have been reading in Ecclesiastes this week and it has really caused me to think about what I am putting my energy towards. Solomon talks about how he was one of the Wisest men of his time and he spent his energy towards gaining material things.  He had everything he wanted, and denied himself nothing.

He says in Eccl. 2:10 & 11 “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.  I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure.  For my heart rejoiced in all my labor and this was my reward  from all my labor.  Then I looked at all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled: and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.  There was no profit under the sun.”

So many times we spend our time working for material things, the things in life that bring us pleasure only for a moment, or we work to maintain our standard of living and we forget to enjoy life.  We don’t know how to make time for the things that truly matter.

I started to examine myself, and even in planting this church it is easy to get lost in just the labor aspect, and how many people come, and how awesome our services are, or how much outreach we do and forget about diving into the lives of the people that are needing the discipleship and encouragement.  I become selfish because sometimes it is easier to labor and work physically rather than taking the time to build relationships and see lives truly transformed.

The “things” that we are working for will stay here on earth when we are gone, but the one thing that we can take with us are the lives that have been impacted for  Christ.  The people that we have invested our time in and seen their lives transformed. Something that TJ & I say a lot is that “change doesn’t happen in a weekend church service it happens through the relationships in our lives”  There are so many relationships that I have had in my life that have shaped who I am today and my prayer is that I can do that for others.

We are all working for something, what are you spending your time working for? Happiness? Satisfaction? Material things?  I want to challenge you to start investing in relationships and allow God to use you to inspire someone to change, your time and effort will be worth so much more when you see the outcome of your investment.