Work for God, not like dog

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.
A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
- Ecclesiastes 2:17-26

This is the passage of yesterday's sermon on making a life in our work, rather than making a living. Perhaps among the three things we can learn from this passage, I was quite touched by the part when Ps Jeff mentioned how we should move from survival to success to significance in our workplace. It just dawned upon me, a lot of the time, I thought of achieving success, last time for myself, now for God. I always thought of excelling for God and never thought of survival only. But it never came across me that there is one more level above success: significance. Success is self-focused and centred. Once we achieved success, we just have to move on to significance, to make the necessary impact we have to make as salt and light of the world. I remember reading an article in crosswalk asking the readers some trival questions about over-achievers, about who was the richest man in the world and who won the Miss Universe contest etc. I couldn't remember, or even bother to know. But one thing this demonstrates: that is no matter how much success you achieve, you have to make that success a permanent contribution, otherwise, you are just wasting your time. It means, we have to make that success significant to the people around us. This is the next level in our work we are talking about. Our work will only have meaning if it's significant. Imagine yourself working for something that you dun have ownership in. I'm studying business theories now and I know how all these stack up so nicely. Perhaps that will add a new meaning to all that I'm doing right now.

Another dawning was that I learnt that we have to be brutally honest with ourselves. Taking a few minutes to reflect upon the career choice which I'm planning to embark, I dun know whether I'm making the right choice since there are so many options. For one, I'm interested in getting into politics, that's not a secret, not because of the prospect though (imagine all your other friends are WP supporters). Then, I realised that i like to be dramatic and be on a stage or something (perhaps a pre-requisite for being a politician?) Then I know that I wanna set up my own education business next time doing self-development training. Maybe that all add up together, maybe they dun. I dun know. But I certainly know one thing, regardless what I wanna do in the future, i know I'm doing the right course in NUS, in fact the only course in NUS worth studying: history!!!!

Yesterday was also another round of ushering in church. It was a good time of ushering, with the other brother and all the other sistersss. I always enjoy my ushering, somehow or rather, when I'm serving as usher, experience with God just reached another level. Perhaps it's the joy of serving. I dun know. Since I have received Christ, serving sounds so straight forward and natural to me. Rather, I found myself willing to serve whenever possible... (save for last min decor) Sometimes I was looking at myself and others, why the difference? Why am I so zealed up to serve? Why? The million dollar question: why why and why? Honestly, I can only think of one answer: it's always been God. Honestly speaking, I received Christ after giving my sowers a hard time, I sincerely thought that I was going to one of those who would most likely be hesitant to serve, probably giving my fellow brothers and sisters other hard times as well. Maybe it was a seed planted in my heart after I received Christ into my life. Somehow or rather, when I started serving at cg level (my first cg apparently), it started everything. When I started to understand serving God, I began to feel the urge or desire to want to serve more. I looked around in the church ministry. I wasn't that interested in ushering at first, I was more interested in maybe choir or intercessory, but somehow or rather, all directions pointed towards usher. Perhaps it's a return to somewhere I used to belong. I know i enjoy doing ushering. In fact, the reason why I didn't consider ushering in the first place is that I wanted a new challenge in serving. I didn't think that I want to serve in a ministry which I used to do and enjoy. But then, the rest is history.

Anyway, it's been hazy and my post today is quite messy. Little comment for my previous post, since that writer has articulated his points well. Just wanna say, let's continue to produce fruits in repentance.