Meaning

Where is the meaning in a toilet that just decides to be stopped up? Or in the microwave going out? Or in any of the other random things that go wrong at the wrong times? Is the meaning that it provides an opportunity for us to interact with people that we would never interact with if it hadn’t happened? Like the plumber, or the sales person at Target, or any other person who could possibly be available to get us out of our fix? (Yep this weekend very stopped up toilet and microwave that spins around and lights up with beeps and whistles and no actual heating anything = (

I’m always wanting to do something that’s meaningful, like, I don’t mind watching someone’s child if it will help them do something, like take a class, or go on a date with their husband, or you know something that’s meaningful. But like, I don’t want to watch your child so you can just sit on the porch and vegg.

Where’s all this going? Scripture tells us that we’re to love God and to love others; to love others as ourselves [and in case you’re not very loving to yourself] to love others the way that Christ loved us. Well, I don’t want to engage in loving activities unless they’re going to bear fruit. I don’t want to do them for the sake of doing them. I want to do them to produce something. It could be a spiritual something, or an educational something, or a relational something, but definitely a something, not just a “random no results” something.

It doesn’t seem very results orienting to talk to the apartment plumber-fixer guy about your toilet suddenly being stopped up for no reason. And why would it be necessary for me to go to Target to interact with people that I just honestly would rather not be talking to right now? I was just thinking about that and wondering if there was something wrong with that?

⁴For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.    ⁵ May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, ⁶ so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.                         Romans 14

⁵ Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. ⁶ Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. … ¹⁰ And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. ¹¹ These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.    

                                                                                       1 Corinthians 10                                                                                                                                               

Oh brother … so I could become like ..., “A great example of what NOT to do.” The Israelites encountered many different trials on their way to the Promised Land and it wasn’t the trial that was the problem, it was their response to the trial that counted. It was their complaining that did some of them in. But for those who chose to believe, for those who chose to respond obediently, eagerly ready to do whatever God asked of them, …in the spur of the moment, …whether or not they found meaning in it or not, …for them it was counted, accredited, given to them as righteousness.

And I guess that’s what I’m after in my search for meaning. I’m after some righteousness. I’m after some “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” But I also want to be after God’s glory, which means it won’t be about me and what I want to do and I may have to do some seemingly meaningless tasks along the way; some things that don’t have any value that I can see, and do them to the very best of my ability in order to bring honor and glory to Him.

I guess He’s worth it. = )