Obedience

After boarding the coach bus you ride each day that will take you to work in the city, 30 miles away, you settle into the seat for the journey. The morning light has yet to creep over the horizon, and there is a hint of autumn in the air.

You took the job because it meant a much needed rise in income, a chance to finally utilize your management skills to the fullest and the challenge the job represented. Knowing in advance the daily commute was going to be a bit much, but as the months have gone by, you have become accustomed to the early morning risings, the new friends you have made on the bus, and the much needed nap that is taken during the trip.

As the bus enters the interstate, your mind starts to envision your agenda for the work day ahead. Meeting at 9:00 am with your staff, praising them for the hard work they put in getting that special project on-line, under budget and ahead of schedule. Calls to your colleagues in the other regional offices regarding the new product roll-out in a few months. Must make sure to pick up the presents for your Mother’s birthday, can’t make Mom unhappy. And lastly, the dreaded conference call with the company president that can be boring at times but nevertheless is necessary in order to stay abreast of the upcoming company objectives and projects.

While looking out of the window during this mental exercise, you notice the number of vehicles on the interstate, headlights shining brightly, coming from somewhere, headed to somewhere. A scene you have seen dozens of times before. People just like you, maybe. But people nevertheless, children of God whose lives are and experiences are so varied and yet at times the same as yours. People, who are going to jobs they love, hate or are indifferent to. People coming from homes filled with love or going through problems that some of us cannot imagine exist.

You then begin to think about the passage of scripture your read during your morning Bible study of Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verses 13 & 14: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

That is when it hits you! For all of the hustle and bustle we do in life to gain wealth, fame, material possessions, having folks like or love us, that one verse in the Bible says it all.

The writer of Ecclesiastes, Solomon the wisest and richest king of Israel, the king whose states earlier in this same book that whatever his mind could conceive, he did, regardless of the cost. The man who states that for all of his material gains, his sensual pleasures, his huge building projects, all of that was nothing but vanity. He reasoned at the end of Ecclesiastes that all that matters in this life is to fear the Creator of the Worlds and keep his commandments.

How many of us have yet to come to that conclusion? Yes, it is nice to work hard in order to have “the stuff” you want, God wants us to have “stuff”. He says so in Matthew 6:32-33. Yet He also wants us to keep in the forefront of our mind that serving Him is paramount in our lives and the nothing or no one should ever come before Him. Not Mom, Dad, wife, husband, sons or daughters. Nothing!

So you lean back in your seat on the bus, close your eyes for your nap, realizing that from this day forward you will always keep that scripture in mind never forgetting what is most important in life.