Value is interesting. A lot of what we value is built on what others around us perceive as good. I remember when I was younger one of the most valuable items was a Nokia 3330. It was a thing of beauty with games like snake and other important features. I was so amped to get a Nokia 3330. My dad got one.
My perception of the Nokia 3330 was not based on its functionality but rather the fact that everyone else really wanted one, which made me want one. I suppose that’s how fashion works. One day everyone wants something and then its on to the next craze. I’m not against fashion. In fact I rather enjoy looking spiffy, I just do believe that we have to sort between what is fashionable and trendy, and what is truth and can't be changed. Sadly that line often gets blurred for people.
Ecclesiastes 2 v10-11 “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labour, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
If you read through Ecclesiastes you read the heart of a man who can’t see beyond the fickle-ness of life. It is as though he has lost sight of the truth and chased the wrong thing. Everyone around him was amped to get Nokia’s and he followed them and forgot that joy did not lie there.
Joy is a continual state of being. It is not affected by circumstance. Its similar to the climate, even if it rains in the desert, the desert is still the desert. Joy can only be found in the stability of truth. We need to know what we value as truth, and what we allow to be superfluous in our lives; what we choose what to chase, and what we leave. Otherwise we're going to end up with a whole lot of meaningless and nothing to show for it.
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