Enjoyment and perspective


This graphic popped up in my memory feed today and made me smile. Then it made me want dessert.
It's an interesting attitude, isn't it? It brings to mind the old proverb that encourages, "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die." Generally that's an attitude that is discouraged, not encouraged. It's viewed as short-sighted or fatalistic. In fact, the apostle Paul used the expression in that context: "If the dead are not raised, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." (1 Cor 15:32) So without hope of an afterlife, you may as well just "party" through this one.
However, the original context of the phrase seems to be more positive. "So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun." (Eccl 8:15, NKJV)
There's a positive sense of wanting to find happiness and pleasure in life. Life is meant to be enjoyed! We should eat ice cream. We should laugh and rejoice and be entertained. But certainly, we are wise to do that in the perspective of all that comes before and after.
I #GiveThanks for the chance to eat ice cream, and to do it in the proper perspective of eternity!



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