Reading the words of Solomon, I feel as if we’re invading his privacy and reading his journal as he looks back over his life – a life of excess and abundance – and this is what he concluded:

Then I looked on 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. (Ecclesiastes 2:11)

Never has one person had so much – so much of EVERYTHING – yet he felt empty. Many people would wonder, “My goodness, he had everything anyone could possibly want! Why on earth is he feeling empty?”

He could honestly say, as many do these days, “Been there, done that!” But he might consider putting it this way, “Been there, done that, got it wrong!” He has experienced just about everything – and is now experiencing a wakeup call – as he reflects on why he feels empty. He concludes that nothing he has done has lasting value.

You and I know that life apart from God truly is an empty life – no matter how many pleasures and accomplishments come your way.

Maybe you, like Solomon, feel that life is empty and meaningless. Perhaps you feel like a bagger at the grocery store. You get up every morning, have breakfast, go to work, bag groceries, come home, eat, go to bed and get up the next morning and do it all over again… every… single… day. You feel that life is meaningless until the day you decide to glorify God in your work – doing your work as if you were doing it for God Himself – seeing every day as a God-ordained opportunity.

And then one day, as you are helping a lady load her groceries into her car, she says, “Thank you, son, you have been the hands of Jesus for me today!” And suddenly, you realize your life has meaning, because God is at the center of everything you do. And you’re not feeling empty at all – you feel full!



And that’s exactly the kind of life Jesus was talking about when He said, “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:10)

The abundant life is the life lived with Jesus at the center. Is that where He is in YOUR life?

By Judy Shrout