September 9, 2021 – Click here to listen
I was conversing with a friend, and he lamented the fact that I’m traveling and having a ball. He said he was too poor to do what I’m doing.
Huh?
The things I enjoy in life are available to anyone. I love the great outdoors, especially fishing and hunting. I also enjoy hiking or just gazing at the mountains or oceans or rivers or even pine, spruce, aspen, or oak forests. I love sunsets and sunrises and wildlife of every description. I actually enjoy working out at the gym and cycling. I love to play guitar and to paint artistic renderings.
Solomon said the race is not always to the swift – but if we are grateful for each day We are given, we will live and end our days satisfied.
I know this fellow with whom I was discussing this, lives adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean. Even if he went to the jetties he could fish from the rocks or a bridge and have a good time and catch some nice fish.
How do I know that? I used to do it. I was not born wealthy and was homeless at 24. I did not hit the lottery and worked for years and years before I could even buy my first car. I hunted on public land and fished in ponds and creeks wherever I was allowed. I camped in a tent and had beanie weenies and enjoyed the heck out of it.
I’ve learned that some folks just want to sit around on the couch and watch TV and talk about things that might have been if only they had been born rich or had been “lucky”. It has been my experience that most wake up in a foul mood and go downhill from there. As for me I wake up whistling and try my utmost to get the most out of each day. God gives us days of adversity and prosperity, but they both come from Him; hence, I take each day as it comes and make the absolute best out of them.
My Bible study partner and I are studying Ecclesiastes and in chapter 9 Solomon talks at length about death. I don’t care if you are rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, tall or short, Demoncrat or Republican or fed up with both, we all have one thing in common. We are all going to die one day, unless raptured first. Good advice – Love God, whistle every morning and be in a good mood.
Solomon said we should live each day to its fullest; every meal should be considered a banquet, every day should be lived as if it was a fun party, we should live each day of marriage like a honeymoon, and work every day as though this was going to be our final achievement. I suppose we should fish like that too. Basically, death comes to us all and we don’t know when. So live each day as an adventure. Solomon said that we should recognize that death is coming and live differently because of it.
Basically, just live your lives to the fullest and take no prisoners. I’m sold on it. And take it from one of the wealthiest men to ever live wealth ain’t what it is cracked up to be. In a smaller way I can attest to that too. Don’t always be wishing for something you don’t have. Someone will always have more.
Eccl. 5:12
The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much. But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.