My Problem and God's Solution

Scripture: For what does a person get with all his work and all his efforts that he labors at under the sun? For all his days are filled with grief, and his occupation is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile. There is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand, because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from him? Ecclesiastes 2:22-25

Observation: As the teacher evaluates life, he dwells upon the worthlessness of earthly work. Just like daily personal tasks, work is a chasing of the wind, and doing it well only means that someone else will someday inherit it while you are forgotten and they may be incompetent. It is futile.

And yet, there is nothing better for a person than if such work can provide a person with eat and drink, and if they enjoy the work. This is the best one can hope for from daily work. And this enjoyment comes from being with the Lord.

Application: I have known this for some time ... my greatest issue and biggest regret in life - the one that causes me all other sadness and challenges and despair - is that I have absolutely no joy in my work, and I haven't since I even first began working. I never found my passion. I never took time to reflect on what makes me happy, and I never tried to align my work to my happiness. I chose to exclusively seek happiness outside of work, believing that the point of work was just to earn the money I need to fund those outside activities and therefore it didn't matter what I did.

I don't just lack joy in work, but I find it truly meaningless. Solomon says it best, it is a chasing of the wind, it is vaper. Half the time I don't understand even what I'm doing, and the other half of the time I don't understand why it even matters. Even when I was the boss, when I would drill down about the purpose of the work at hand I would reach a dead-end of the logic where it became mostly meaningless. My job brings me grief and sorrow during the day, and restlessness of mind at night, and it has for decades.

And yes, it does in fact fund the eating and drinking and fun we have as a family. As a result, I have absolutely embraced the attitude that 'two outta three ain't bad' when it comes to Solomon's statement that there is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy work. Yet the emptiness of my job remains.

However, it is Solomon who immediately shows me God's solution to this despair. He points out that even my work is "from God's hand" and that "who can enjoy life apart from him". And this is then where I need to seek joy ... finding God within my daily work, and discovering that somehow he is here in the midst of my work and I can enjoy him in my work.

I don't know quite how that works at a global technology company, or at any other potential career that would use my acquired skills and knowledge as an IT leader. I do know that I need to try, because while I don't have decades of work left, I do have more than a few years to go, and I really can't get lower than this.

Prayer: Lord, may I actually find you ever day in my work, and may I seek you in my work. I often pray that you show me how to serve you within the context of my daily activity, but I also want you to be central to even that activity. In my meetings, my documents, my research and analytics, may you be there. Amen.