• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

The big idea is that life is short. In the original language, the word vain is the Hebrew word hebel. The word occurs some thirty-eight times in the twelve chapters of Ecclesiastes and is variously translated as meaningless (NIV), vanity (KJV, NASB, NKJV, RSV, NRSV), or emptiness (NEB). How one translates that word affects his or her entire view of not only Ecclesiastes, but also the very purpose of life, as that is the central question of the book. While it is difficult to know the exact meaning of hebel, it seems that vapor, or breath is the best translation of the word. Life does not have to be meaningless, vain, or empty—though it can be, apart from faith and repentance.

However, life is short. It is fleeting, like a breath on a cold morning that you see for only an instant before it disappears. Life moves quickly. Married life can seem as if it’s only five days long. The first day you meet, the second day you marry, the third day you raise your children, the fourth day you meet your grandchildren, and the fifth day you die first or bury your spouse to go home alone for the first time in many years.

36

God in His grace gives us spouses as enjoyable friends. And He expects us to get dressed up now and then and have some fun with our friends, eating and laughing to God’s glory and our good. There will always be work to do, and once in a while we need to stop working and start worshipping by enjoying the friends God gave us. We are convinced that the couples who pray and play together stay together.

Last, an enjoyable friend helps routines become rituals. If your spouse is an enjoyable friend, suddenly a cup of coffee together, a walk after dinner, and a trip to the grocery store become sacred rituals filled with meaningful opportunities to have some fun with the friend you are married to.

Date night is a ritual for me (Grace). It is weekly, but it is different each week because the conversation, food, and activities change. Sometimes we go to dinner and a movie, sometimes we find a great spot on the beach and chat, sometimes we do a fun activity or getaway, sometimes we come back home and snuggle up, but we always try to keep that time about us. Family night, every Saturday, is a similar ritual (sabbath time with the family doing various low-key things).

For me (Mark), I’ve learned to see many of the things Grace does for our family and for me as a series of sacred rituals. She is far more Martha than Mary. This hardworking woman devotedly serves and manages a busy home with five kids, ministry demands, and a high-maintenance, drama queen of a husband. But when we were not as emotionally connected in prior years, I did not value her service because it felt as if she was doing things for me rather than with me. As our friendship has grown, I have come to see her service differently— more as sacred rituals motivated by love than as tasks performed by a business partner.

One example in particular happens every Sunday morning. I leave the house around 7:00 a.m. and do not return until 10:00 p.m. because I preach all day. In recent years we have developed a ritual. Grace gets up early to make me breakfast (French press coffee sweetened with raw honey and huevos rancheros with chorizo and green chilis are my favorites), and together we connect before I head out to preach. Between services, Grace and the children join me for lunch in my office, and I get a bit of time to connect with my family—I miss them when I am away from them. These Sunday rituals mean the world to me and have made a big difference in my life and ministry as well as in our family.

37

N—Needed

In the beginning there was God.

Before there were date nights or divorce lawyers, there was God.

One gloriously happy, completely united, altogether loving God. In fact, before there was anyone or anything, there was one God in three persons living in unbroken union and eternal communion.

Then, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness . . . So God created