Enjoy the Moment… Have Fun!
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. Ecclesiastes 3:11-12
When you read the entirety of the Book of Ecclesiastes, there becomes an all too familiar theme:
Be sure to enjoy the journey, and don’t run the rat race that life can become, because it’s all meaningless!
Wealth, pleasure, advancement, all the things we have a tendency of working so hard for… they’re all meaningless in light of our ultimate end. Sure, perhaps we can go a bit more comfortably, but we’re all going to die. After all, the mortality rate is hovering somewhere around 100%.
So, enjoy the day! Don’t squander the here and now due to fear and anxiety. Far too often, our ways involve being too concerned about the future and regretting the past. We can’t change the past, and the future will be here soon enough. What does it even look like to be in the moment as to not lose the present?
The secret to being in the present is to have fun and enjoy whatever you are doing. (Fun according to God’s definition of fun, not the world’s.)
Think about this as we approach Holy Week next week… All the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) give great detail on what Jesus and His disciples did during Holy Week. We know that Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on Sunday (Palm Sunday) riding on a donkey. He taught and argued with the Pharisees and Sadducees on the next day, which was Monday, and the following day, which was Tuesday. We know that they prepared for the Seder, or Passover meal, and consumed it on Thursday (Maundy Thursday, the last supper). Friday (Good Friday) was the crucifixion, and He rested in the grave on the Sabbath, which was Saturday.
Did you catch it?!
The gospels are silent about what happened on Wednesday!?! Here it is, the most pivotal week in these men’s lives and the history of the world, and no mention of what they did on Wednesday! This is odd considering how much intentional detail seems to be given about all the other days. Maybe God is drawing our attention to this.
Maybe Jesus and the disciples took a walk, played a pick-up game of heal the sick, went fishing… who knows? Maybe the point is that in the middle of Jesus’s last week, He took a down day to relax and enjoy life.
We should take note because Jesus knew that His time was up. We don’t.
Jesus knew how it was going to end for Him. We don’t.
May we never get so busy or be so consumed by the past and the future, that we can’t take a day to have fun and appreciate our many blessings from God. Or be so distracted that we forget to enjoy the God-given moment.
Enjoy the moments, have fun, and use your gifts wisely, because in the end, God’s plan will endure.
