Rule of Life
As Solomon reaches his concluding thoughts in the book of Ecclesiastes - he makes an interesting exhortation to his reader: enjoy life. It’s a hard concept to grasp in light of Solomon’s previous outlook. How can you enjoy life if it’s meaningless and all vanity? Is enjoyment even possible? And if it is… how does one actually go about doing that?
That’s the subject we tackled in our sermon from last week (and will again re-visit this week). Solomon shows us that if we only look at life through the lens of what is “under the sun” then indeed everything is meaningless and there is absolutely no way we can truly enjoy any part of life. However, if we realise that the brokenness and vanity under the sun points us to that which is beyond the sun then we can actually enjoy the gifts that God has given us in this quick and fleeting life.
Solomon unpacks a few of those in Ecclesiastes 9:7-10:
Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
In the midst of commanding us to enjoy the good gifts from the hand of a Good Creator - Solomon mentions something odd about white clothes and oil. Contextually this can be lost on us but if we pan out and take a look at the concept that Solomon is getting at then it could have immense implications for how we go about our day.
White clothes were meant to be worn for celebration - when one attended a party. And oil (a rarity) was used to moisten skin and add fragrance. One way we can apply this is to approach the day with purpose and intentionality as one would in getting ready for a party. Essentially, Solomon’s exhortation is not to let life simply pass by as you slog through the day but to seize it because it is truly a gift from God.
So… if we can truly find enjoyment in life because there’s more to life than simply what’s under the sun - and if part of finding enjoyment is living with a high level of intentionality (not reactivity) - how exactly can we do that?
One of the best (ancient) tools for establishing a plan to pursue purpose and meaning in your life is something called a Rule of Life. Justin Earley in his book Common Rule defines a Rule of Life as, “a set of habits you commit to in order to grow your love of God and neighbor.”
Below are three resources to help you understand but then apply a Rule of Life to your own life.
- Listen to John Mark Comer and Jefferson Bethke unpack what a Rule of Life is and how to build one out in our life.
- Here is a sample of my own Rule of Life. Disclaimer... this is a work in progress AND it applies to my life. Don’t see this as something to carbon copy but as something that can help you as you craft out a plan to live intentionally in your own life.
Direction: |
|||||||
Practices: |
|||||||
Daily: |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Weekly: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Monthly: |
|
|
|
|
|||
Quarterly: |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Annually: |
|
|
|
|
|
||
- Use these resources from Emotional Healthy Discipleship to begin building out your own Rule of Life. Start small, be realistic, and give yourself a ton of grace.
