Help Me to Help Them

17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22 What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? 23 All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless. ~ Ecclesiastes 2.17-23 (NIV)

Giving away things seems easier for the old. What I treasured at twenty — would fight to keep — sixty years later can easily go to a youngster who will treasure it. What if I’d passed it by for fear of having to give it up? Both would be robbed – I of the joy of holding and passing the joy, the youth of treasuring it for it was mine. Meaningless? Worry is meaningless. God, help me see those people miserable as The Teacher. Help me to help them love.