. . .All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. You remember Solomon’s observations about life in Ecclesiastes. Do you ever feel the same way? My days are filled with much of the same toil until one day runs into another, leaving me feeling like I’m getting nowhere. Cleaning, laundry, meals, cleaning laundry meals, intermingled with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Sure there are happy moments in the mix as well. But after a while, one begins to consider the relevance of one’s life, or rather, irrelevance.

I’ve been trying, as it were, to lose weight for years. I spent ten years having children, the last one at the age of forty, and now, it’s time the baby fat came off. But how? I’ve tried everything. Recently it came to me that if I was able to walk five miles a day and lose the weight, I would be willing to commit to that. It takes me TWO hours to walk five miles at an average of 3 mph. TWO hours is a significant amount of time. But if the end result is that I’m my thin self again. . .then it’s worth it!

What does this have to do with the meaning of life. Hang on. I’m getting there.

After only a few days of two hours of exercise (sometimes I switch the minutes between the bike, stair stepper and treadmill) I could see a difference. To think that my diet and thirty minute exercises had not done much for me! But this. . .this is something. The point here is that I realized just how hard it is, how much work it takes, to make a difference in life. I had to really pump up the exercise to see the difference. But it doesn’t stop there. . .

I started thinking that maybe the Lord was using this to show me how everything I want to achieve is hard work–much harder than I knew. This same day while folding clothes (yes, I still do laundry in the midst of this new revelation) I watched Glenn Beck’s interview with the Covey’s. I came away with the same message from them about everything in life–you have to be PROACTIVE. You can’t just do your thing and expect to make a difference. You have to actively work very hard to make things happen in every area of your life.

I’m thinking. . .

1) Prayer and spiritual life. How much more time do I need to spend praying? If Christ is my example– a lot more time.
2) family/children– how much more time should I spend really focusing on my kids. Sure I’m doing things for them all day such as cleaning, laundry, meals. But how about those one on one conversations or REALLY listening to my teenager?
3)Exercise–see above
4)Writing. If you’re a writer then you already know just how challenging this can be. It’s an uphill battle to produce something, then send it to an editor or an agent.

I don’t think I’ve really told you anything you don’t already know. For me, though, it’s a simple realization that all of the achievements I strive for are within my reach–if I would only work MUCH harder.