As I write this, I am coming down from performing a funeral where I was reminded that I will die. Maybe you don't need another reminder that death is inevitable for all of us, but I do. Sometimes I forget the reality that my life will end and eventually I will be forgotten. Not by my children or my wife, but eventually I will be forgotten.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-4

2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,

vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

3 What does man gain by all the toil

at which he toils under the sun?

4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,

but the earth remains forever.

The preacher in Ecclesiastes reflects on this in what some might call a bummer of a book of the bible. I don't find Ecclesiastes to be a bummer, I find it to be honest and nothing gives me hope like honesty and truth. While the preacher in Ecclesiastes isn't seeing through rose colored glasses, what he reminds us of is, for me, a blessing.

I am reminded in Ecclesiastes of the words by the famous missionary C.T. Studd (insert stud finder joke here) in his poem "Only One Life" when he writes "Only one life,’ twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last."

The preacher in Ecclesiastes ends the book with words that will give more meaning to your life than anything else you could ever pursue.

13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Live your life in light of the truth that all things in this life are temporary, the Hebrew word that the preacher uses in the beginning of Ecclesiastes is "heḇel" which means vapor, breath, and vain. As people whose lives will be a vapor wouldn't it make the most sense to live in obedience to Jesus when we says "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal?"

I think C.T. Studd (yes, I wish this were my name) was on to something. I think men should live their lives believing "Only one life,’ twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last."

Stay faithful, men!