Chasing After the Wind
Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 4:6I dragged myself out of bed at 5:00 a.m. on three consecutive Saturdays to exhibit 100 quilts, give a program, and sell books for eight hours. It was exhilarating, but totally exhausting. Every muscle ached from hauling quilts, racks, and books in and out.
Last summer I drove 400 miles round trip to a Watermelon Festival to present a program and quilt show and never got paid. And who could forget the wind storm at last spring's Kolache Festival that kept blowing my quilt racks down. Only because the ingenious Czech glass artist helped me tie the racks to the pavilion uprights with bungee cords did I not give up and drive two hours home in defeat, chasing after the wind.
That was the name of the sermon today. Confessed workaholics, my husband and I desperately needed to take that message to heart since we were past retirement age and still working twelve-hour days.
How much was enough? It wasn't the money or material possessions we were chasing. What drove us to live our lives out of balance? I thought I was serving God by spreading His Word printed on each page of my books and giving Him the glory. I wondered how much of this obsessive/compulsive habitual activity was intertwined with proving my self-worth. Perhaps I was so insecure and afraid of losing my identity that I could never be content being a Mary, instead of involved in a whirlwind of perpetual motion like Martha.
As King Solomon discovered, life lived under the sun is meaningless, utterly useless, temporal—chasing after the wind. Only when we discover God's purpose or will, can we eliminate the distractions and live above the sun, building up eternal treasures in heaven.
I was about to repeat this insanity and create more toil and stress when I still hadn't recovered from yesterday's beating. Instead of hitting the send button on an email blast to stir up more bookings, I waited when a voice within nudged me first to seek God's purpose and will for me.
When you want to rush. Wait on God.
Since 1976, Judy Howard has owned and operated Buckboard Antiques and Quilts in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Her love of quilts developed while taking a class from nationally renowned fiber artist Terrie Mangat. Judy became a charter member of the Oklahoma Quilt Guild, and antique quilts became her specialty. Her stories of quilting through the depression have been Awarded First Place by the regional Oklahoma Writers Federation Inc. Visit her at http://www.heavenlypatchwork.com/.
Read Judy's devotions.
