Episode 897 What Does it Mean to Live
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 897 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:08] RJ Jackson: [00:00:08] I'm RJ Jackson, the courage giver. I encourage you to have the courage you need to live your calling. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.
[00:00:24]Scott Maderer: [00:00:24] this idea of living, not just for the moment, but recognizing that the moment is all you really have is important. This passage, though, it's about dying is really more about living. It's about recognizing that we all.
[00:00:44]welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling [00:01:00] and the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you.
[00:01:09] Can impact the work,
[00:01:11]a spiritual foundation episode about investing in yourself. I talk with you about Ecclesiastes chapter nine. I share why this passage is about living more than dying. And I also share why this doesn't mean to just live for yourself. Ecclesiastes chapter nine says this. This too. I carefully explored, even though the actions of godly and wise people are in God's hands, no one knows whether God will show them favor.
[00:01:41] The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone whether righteous or wicked good or bad ceremonially clean, or unclean religious or irreligious, good people receive the same treatment as centers and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don't. It seems so wrong. [00:02:00] That everyone under the sun suffers the same fate already twisted by evil people choose their own mad course for they have no hope.
[00:02:10] There is nothing ahead, but death anyway, there is hope only for the living, as they say, it's better to be a live dog than a dead one. The living at least, no, they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered, whatever they did in their lifetime. Loving, hating in being is all long gone.
[00:02:32] They no longer play a part in anything here on earth. So go ahead, eat your food with joy and drink your wine with a happy heart for God. Approves of this wear fine clothes with a splash of color. Live happily with the woman you love all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun, the wife, God gives you as your reward for all of your earthly toil, whatever you do well for when you go to the grave, there will be no work or [00:03:00] planning or knowledge or wisdom having observed something else under the sun.
[00:03:04] The fastest runner doesn't always win the race and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle. The why sometimes go hungry and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated, don't always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance by being in the right place at the right time, people can never predict when hard times might come like a fish in a net or birds in a trap, people are caught by sudden treads.
[00:03:32] Here's another bit of wisdom that impressed me as I've watched the way our world works small town with only a few people and a great king came with his army and besieged it a poor wise man knew how to save the town. And so it was rescued, but afterwards, no one thought to thank him. So even though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised.
[00:03:54] If they are. What they say will not be appreciated for long, better to hear the quiet words of [00:04:00] a wise person than the shouts of a foolish king, better to have wisdom than weapons of war, but one center can destroy much. That is good. So this is one of those passages that I've read a number of times in the Bible, and it's always struck me a little odd in a way, because in a way it sounds like it's saying basically just live for the moment. All you have is what's alive in the day today. And then it's really about just doing whatever you want or being whatever you want. But that's not really what this passage is saying. This passage is really talking about the fact that when you realize that you'll never know when your moment comes, you'll never know the moment.
[00:04:46] And it will come for all of us that you should actually focus on living while you're alive. You should focus on doing things that you are called to do, doing things that are in [00:05:00] alignment with who you are and your values. You should focus on relationships and friendships and actually doing things that help you and make you happy and make others happy and serve other people.
[00:05:14] This idea of living, not just for the moment, but recognizing that the moment is all you really have is important. This passage, though, it's about dying is really more about living. It's about recognizing that we all live good, bad wrong, whatever it is. The moment that comes to us is not only of our own doing that.
[00:05:41] It's not only something that we earn. It comes from outside as well. It comes from our relationship with God. It comes from chance. It comes from privilege. It comes from all sorts of opportunities and the lack of them that we have. And because of that, if we recognize our own more [00:06:00] mortality, if we recognize the fact that we are all called to live and all called to die, and that the truth is that it's not about who's the fastest or the best or the strongest all the time.
[00:06:12] It's also about who has wisdom and recognizes the fact that they are. And out of that wisdom and that recognition of our own mortality, of the fact that we will die comes the ability to live in the moment comes the ability to recognize that the moment is all we have. And when you begin to recognize that you really have two choices, the first is about living.
[00:06:40] You choose whether you want to focus on the. Or whether you want to focus on the life, do you want to focus on grasping what you can out of life? And then the second half of that, you have to decide if you are going to focus on the living, if you are going to focus on life, do you focus on just what's good for [00:07:00] you?
[00:07:01] Or do you focus on what also serves those around you? Do you focus on getting all you can for yourself with the recognition that when you die, it goes away. You no longer have those fine clothes. You no longer have the biggest house at that point. It's all over. And we're all the same in death. Or do you recognize that we're called to live and serve each other to recognize that there's no way of knowing when hard times may come, but what gets you through?
[00:07:33] Those is the relationships you have much more than it is the stuff that you have. And if you begin to recognize that, then you begin to live for the moment, but you begin to live for the moment, not just for your own stuff, not just to get what you can get, but to see what you can do to build a relationship and serve others as well.
[00:07:56] Thanks for calling.
[00:07:57]thanks so much for listening to the [00:08:00] inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewards.
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