{"id":2641,"date":"2012-03-19T09:05:13","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T16:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=2641"},"modified":"2012-03-19T09:05:13","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T16:05:13","slug":"its-my-story-maybe-yours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/03\/19\/its-my-story-maybe-yours\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s my Story, Maybe Yours"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/h6>\n

Why do I love Ecclesiastes so much? A lot of reasons. There’s great wisdom in it. It aligns with how I see life. It aligns with my own life.<\/p>\n

The writer is one blessed with more human gifts, brains, money and glory than anyone could imagine. Yet, in the end, he’s just a man needing God.<\/p>\n

Rich or poor, it’s the same for all of us. It’s pretty normal to feel that true happiness is waiting for us with the next thing<\/em><\/span>. If we could just have ___________ (fill in blank) then we’d be content. Then we get it, and we’re not. So we try again. And again and again and again.<\/p>\n

In Ecclesiastes, the writer got to the top of all this and, with nothing else to get, he looked around and saw it was all meaningless.<\/p>\n

What was left but CQE&D?<\/strong> (That’s cynicism, questioning everything and despair.)<\/p>\n

He’s not the only one that’s come to this. Like I said, it’s my story.<\/p>\n

It was in early adulthood I began to set my goals.\u00a0I was married and figured it was time to get serious. I had five goals–a certain car, a certain boat, a certain house, a certain job, and a certain wife. (Okay, I already had the wife.)<\/p>\n

To me, most of these were far off and distant, but the pursuit would give me focus for a long time. To my surprise, within a year I had them all.<\/p>\n

And I’d learned a principle: What you aim for you arrive at.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s a nice thing to know when you’re a young man starting out. Or anytime.<\/p>\n

I also learned another principle: Arriving isn’t enough.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was empty.<\/p>\n

I appeared happy. I appeared successful. But I knew\u00a0different. Worse, I was afraid nothing I could do was going to change it.<\/p>\n

I could set new goals. But I knew in time I’d only arrive at them; and then where would I be but where I already was<\/span>?<\/p>\n

That’s when the CQE&D set in.<\/p>\n

Cynicism, questioning everything and despair.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMeaningless, meaningless, says the <\/strong>[Ecclesiastes] Preacher\u201d*<\/strong> Not that I was listening to any preacher. Such voice I’d long fled\u2014and covered my tracks.<\/p>\n

Now I was alone with my success and, like I said, empty<\/span>.<\/p>\n

To give the rest of the story would mean another book. Suffice to say, in time, God entered the picture and showed me what was missing. Namely: Him.<\/p>\n

What’s happened since then is a third book. (Yet Moore on That.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

But this was to be a meditation on the honest perspectives in Ecclesiastes, and how they align with our lives\u2014at least mine.<\/p>\n

I can say with the Joni Mitchel song, \u201cI’ve looked at life from both sides now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Happily, I’m on the brighter side.<\/p>\n

And everything is meaningful.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let me know if this resonates with you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_______________________<\/p>\n

*Ecc.1:2<\/p>\n

Next time: Life, the Great Experiment.<\/em> Coming Thursday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a book that aligns with my own life. Maybe yours too, if you’ve lived long enough. Let me know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2641"}],"version-history":[{"count":47,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2723,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641\/revisions\/2723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}