A call for update so here it is.

I heard of a story yesterday. There was this worker who came from overseas to share the Word in a particular village. He worked there for years, teaching and sharing with the people there songs and living with the people. Years passed and when World War II broke out, he was killed when the Japanese invaded.

His daughter returned to the village years later when she was already 80+ years old only to find that the work her father had done was lost. The villages still remembered this particular person, and some of the songs he taught, but besides that, nothing changed. The church is being used for something else, only being truly a place of worship on Christmas itself. She was so upset, she wept.

It makes me think, will what I do be burnt to the ground in the end? Would I escape, but just with my life, everything else gone? How does it feel to have all my hard work amount to nothing?

Little did I know I was to feel that exact feeling just later in the evening.

In order to plant more vegetables in the garden plot at the office, the soil had to be tilled. One of the staff, in doing that, destroyed most of the garlic I had been growing and caring for the past weeks. Losing my work wasn't a good feeling; there were feelings of anger and loss. I didn't have to sacrifice my life for these plants, and yet the feelings were intensed. It would be much worse for the daughter.

A passage came to mind with regards to these, plus a comment from a book I was reading just that day.

Unless [He] builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless [He] watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat -
for he grants sleep to those he loves. (or for while they sleep he provides for those he loves)

Of interest is the later part of this chapter (Ps 127) which I only noticed and started to think about recently:

Sons are a heritage from [Him],
children a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.
Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

And this reminds me...

Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:

There was a man all alone;
he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
"For whom am I toiling," he asked,
"and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?"
This too is meaningless -
a miserable business!
- Ecc 4

Building and standing guard has been linked to sons (and daughters, don't worry sisters). Work is not doing things, but reproducing (you know I'm not talking about multiplying your genes in the biological sense), otherwise, it'll all be meaningless at the end of the day.

And this particular book I was reading just in the morning was talking about whether we are building His kingdom or ours. If we were building His kingdom, even when all my plants and effort was destroyed, as long as I have put in my best, I will not be (too) upset. He gives and He takes away, may His name be praised.

One comment which sounds like a modern day Ecc so I'll state it in that manner, which I think all of you have heard before.

Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:

Young men work and toil at the expense of their health,
and in their old age expend all of it in order to regain it.
This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.