Strange Comfort

Last night I had a hard time going to sleep.  I'm fortunate and thankful that I've been sleeping well for quite some time, but last night, after going to bed at 11:30 or so, I laid awake with my mind on a particular "not-in-my-control" situation for over an hour.  I went in search of my Bible (*see note below about that) and found myself in a place where I'd never found comfort before, the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, useless, just a vapor, a whisp of smoke, a bit of fog... What good is all our toil?  There is a time for all things... life, death, love, hate... everything comes and goes... Enjoy your life, enjoy your wife, relax and let God be God.

There is a lot more to the book than that, but, ultimately, though we are so loved by God, demonstrated in the way he did battle on our behalf on the cross... though we are so loved by God we are really just small people in a very big universe.

That kind of talk goes totally against my character.  I am NOT someone who believes we ought to just let things ride.  But, honestly, there are times for everything, and, at midnight, when there isn't a lot you can do, when no one else is around, and no one that I could really talk with anyway who would understand, even if I were to call and wake them up, and when there is no internet available, it's time to just let God do what He wants as the book of Ecclesiastes advises.

For me, last night, that was comfort.  Maybe it can be comfort in a moment of your life too.

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* Beginning in August 2009, my appreciation for the comforts of Holy Scripture began to grow.  Scripture has been important for me for many years, but my personal sense of thankfulness for those comforts has expanded more than I can describe.  The multiple losses and extreme emotions of the last year and a half have at least borne fruit in that way, even though I wouldn't wish a time of trial like this on anyone.  Thank you Jesus.

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