Today I watched a video my dad posted from You tube. It was Shania Twain singing at an awards show back in 1994. And the video is titled: Michael Jackson watching Shania Twain perform.
As I watched the video my mind took me back to 1994. I was 21 years old and dying to look and be Shania Twain! I use to watch her video’s and sing her music trying to emulate her. Notice I said, “Trying.”
We were all star struck by Shania and it appears as I watched, Michael was too. She was “It” during that time.
Now fast forward to now. Shania has been replaced by the “Lady Gaga’s” of our time and Michael is gone. As I sat and pondered how nothing stays the same or lasts, it reminded me of what King Solomon penned in Ecclesiastes 1:8-9
The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its filling of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again.
King Solomon learned a thing or two about putting too much stock in the things of this world. The Lord had named him the wisest man in all the world and then… dear Solomon got a little off track…
What did he do? He went and did what most of us would have done with a lot of wealth. He says in Chapter 2:10-11–
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure, my heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor, yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun.
He ends Ecclesiastes with saying: Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
Solomon had learned and knew at the end of his life what truly mattered: Knowing God.
He had seen and done it all and he knew what lasted.
Cool outfits, hairstyles, careers, number one hits, and temporary trappings do not last.
When we die our clothes will go in a box and be given away. Our homes will be sold. And our loved one’s will remember us and may cry for a while, but, they will go on.
Life goes on. Harsh reality I know, but it’s life.
Hopefully when we will leave this world the memories we leave behind will be one’s of sweetness and joy for our loved ones.
But, I want to leave my family and children more than memories, I want to leave a legacy of faith.
Faith in Jesus Christ is what changes and sustains us and is what lasts.
My children’s memories of me will comfort them but, it is not what is going to sustain them. But, I know if leave them with a legacy of faith that will.
So, does knowing God mean we can’t enjoy life or bust out a Shania song or some Michael moves? No, but it does mean we have to learn to put God first, get to know Him, and realize most things in this world are temporary and meaningless apart from Him.
Now if Ty and I could just get that moonwalk down….
