Chasing Time: Relationships

The rela­tion­ships we have, or lack thereof, are impacted by our time man­age­ment. We can chase time and ignore those rela­tion­ships or we can build rela­tion­ships and man­age our time to help us do so. Ecclesiastes main mes­sage is that we can chase after a lot of things and even accom­plish them all, great and small but in the end, it is our rela­tion­ship with God and oth­ers that mat­ters. When we spend all our time chas­ing after things, we can end up all alone, mis­er­able, and with­out God. We need to man­age our time to ensure that we build our relationships.

And now, the ser­mon notes:

Ecc 4:7–12 [show]Ecclesiastes 4:7–12 [7]Again, I saw van­ity under the sun: [8]one per­son who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never sat­is­fied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toil­ing and depriv­ing myself of plea­sure?” This also is van­ity and an unhappy busi­ness. [9]Two are bet­ter than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. [10]For if they fall, one will lift up his fel­low. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! [11]Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? [12]And though a man might pre­vail against one who is alone, two will with­stand him–a three­fold cord is not quickly bro­ken. (ESV)
main pas­sage for sermon.

We often com­pare our­selves with oth­ers. This leads us to want­ing more and we end up in an end­less race, an unat­tain­able dream We chase those dreams and never find con­tent­ment. This is espe­cially true in relationships.

First, are you con­tent with your­self or do you see your­self neg­a­tively. A crum­pled up, stomped on ten dol­lar bill still has the same value as a crisp clean ten dol­lar bill. In the same way our lives have the same value that God put on it in the begin­ning. We need to acknowl­edge that value, not devalue ourselves.

Matt 22:37–40 [show]Matthew 22:37–40 [37]And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. [38]This is the great and first com­mand­ment. [39]And a sec­ond is like it: You shall love your neigh­bor as your­self. [40]On these two com­mand­ments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (ESV)
. We can not love oth­ers if we can not love our­selves (in a healthy way). And we must be con­sis­tent in our daily lives. We need to be happy with our­selves and stop try­ing to be some­one else. Ask God to reveal our­selves as He sees us and write them down. Ask God to help us live as He sees us.

Then we need to start build­ing on our rela­tion­ships. Slow down and enjoy our rela­tion­ships. Live like a human and not like a lab rat in a maze chas­ing the cheese. Love your neigh­bor. Learn how to invest in oth­ers. Be real. Take time to be with oth­ers. Doing life together.

Ok, I am a bit mad at myself because I for­got to take a pic­ture of the plat­form Sunday. It had a cof­fin on it! No, we didn’t have a real funeral. We had a fake one where the poor dead guy, “Pat,” had no real friends and only one fam­ily mem­ber who talked about choco­late bars. He was remem­bered first and fore­most for being the first to work and the last to leave. He was a busy guy. But no friends. Pastor Jeff was dressed up in what many of us would think of as a mortician’s suit, long black jacket with like 5 but­tons, black pants, and a black shirt. He kind of cleans up well 

The point was obvi­ous, at the end of our lives, how will we be remem­bered and by whom. The impact we have on work has no last­ing effect. The impact we have on the lives of oth­ers does. So chas­ing after things is like chas­ing soap bub­bles, the sec­ond we attain them, they pop and noth­ing is left. When we build up rela­tion­ships, they can affect oth­ers well beyond our short time here on earth. It can impact other’s lives for eternity.