Meaningless

The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. Ecclesiastes 12:13 (The Message)

The pomp and circumstance of a Harvard graduation is awesome. It was great to watch Mark's son, Alan, graduate with his Master's degree and complete the journey that he undertook two years ago. Walking around the historic Harvard Yard brought me back to stories that my dad would tell of a semester he spent at Harvard back in 1945 as part of his Navy training. I don't think it has changed much physically in those intervening years but it is now coed, led for the first time by a woman president, and will soon have a greater percentage of women to men. Big changes for an all male school that began in 1636 and only became coed 1999. I have been reading Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived. He spent twelve chapters recounting his life experiences often stating it had all been meaningless. I wondered at his comments since he had it all. Why was it meaningless? As I thought about his view on life, it reminded me of all the young people that had just passed their hardest test and were ready to take on the world. There was a celebratory feeling permeating the campus. You could see it in the smiles of the parents and the joy of the graduates. But, at some point, would they look back and wonder if it had all been worth it? Solomon sums it up: Fear God and do what he tells you. The choices we make for our career, family, hobbies, or personal growth are meaningless if we don't consider God's purpose for our lives. His final admonition is worthy of great consideration.