For Whom Am I Toiling?

Impacting More Than Just Yourself

Part 7 – For Whom Am I Toiling?

This post may sound like I’m preaching, but indulge me just this one time. That’s what preachers do, preach. The only reason I say this is because in this installment I need to quote King Solomon. So let’s get right to it…

“There was a man [person] all alone;
he [this person] had neither son nor brother.”

If I were to go back a decade or so…, I remember a time when I thought I needed no one. I was going to do this thing, my life, on my own. I didn’t need anyone to help me be successful. Can you relate? Now, if you fast forward a few years following, it was this type of thinking that lead me to less success than I ever experienced. What happened? I was “common, ordinary, average, normal”.

King Solomon tells of a man just like me. There was this person who was determined to do life all alone. He had no son or brother; he had no family. There was no one close in his life. His life had no meaningful relationships. As for me, I had removed all the meaningful relationships I had, in pursuit of doing what I knew God wanted me to do. I alienated all the people I had grown up with. I lost touch with all my friends. I had placed distance between me and my close family members. I was this man. I did this all in the name of Jesus. So I thought… I should have read King Solomon’s words back then.

The ordinary answer to succeeding at life (toiling).
“There was no end to his toil,
yet his eyes were not content with his wealth [the results of his toiling].”

I worked day and night. That sounds like a cliche, but for me it wasn’t far from the truth. What I mean is I worked everyday of the week at my previous job. I got in early and I stayed very late. I made it, toiling with no end, working late and everyday, my routine. It became my badge of honor. It made me feel very important. I wanted what ordinary people dream of, being important in the eyes of others. You see uncommon people only need to be important in their own eyes or in the eyes of God.

Have you ever wondered why it is, the harder you work the more you need? Why is it year after year you want more money. Think about it this way. Five years ago you wanted more money and you probably got it the next year with a raise. You mean to tell me with all the raises, 5 years worth, it’s still not enough. I will conclude that there is something missing. Let’s go back to the thoughts of King Solomon, the richest man to ever live…

What can give my life meaning?
“”For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment [recreation]?
This too is meaningless—a miserable business!”

After a while, you’ll ask yourself, who am I doing this for? For me, I was able to look into the eyes of an infant baby girl and realized that my life had a “for whom am I toiling”. From that time forward, I started to give my life new meaning and I did some drastic changing. The point I think King Solomon wanted to paint was that toiling with no purpose is the recipe of a meaningless life, a miserable business.

“For whom are you toiling?”
You might be depriving yourself of enjoying life, a.k.a. recreation. This type of life is what ordinary people have in common, it’s meaningless and a miserable way to live.

I changed mine; now what are you doing about yours?  Leave us a comment.