My Epiphany Pt. 2

Friday, November 27^th, I prayed that God help me to "go back" to where I used to be. For the first time in about a couple of months, I picked up my bible and opened it. I usually have a particular thing that I want to read, but I've put my religion on the back burner for so long, I didn't know where to start. So I did what my family does when they read the bible. I just opened it and started to read.

They always said that when you open your bible and start to read, if there is a message God has for you, you will turn right to the page. So I tried it. When I looked down at the page, I saw that I had opened up to Ecclesiastes. I looked down at a random scripture and it said, "All is vanity. Everything is vanity." I was taken aback since my cosmetic line is called Vanity®. I read a few scriptures before and after this scripture, and I wasn't getting much information. Ecclesiastes only has thirteen chapters, so I said, "I'll just start at chapter one and read all the way through." Boy was the book of Ecclesiastes for me. Let me elaborate...

In My Epiphany, I told you how I was afraid to go back to my religion because I was going to have to sacrifice my career. I was so afraid that I was going to end up being a Christian with no drive, no aspirations, no dreams, no desire, no nothing. I live off my drive. Without it, I wouldn't be anything. I wouldn't have my cosmetic line, and I certainly wouldn't be here on Associated Content sharing this with you.

Basically, the whole book of Ecclesiastes is about working, wisdom, and vanity. It explained how our desire to work for material things is a sign of vanity. The bible calls it "chasing wind", meaning pursuing something that's always going to be here even when you're gone. Many of the scriptures ended with "This too is vanity and a chasing after wind."

It goes on about how we work so hard for things out of our own skills, wisdom, and work ethic, but once we are dead and gone who's to say that our skills and wisdom will be remembered? As a matter of fact, it says it won't be remembered. It also says that "there is nothing new under the sun", meaning that everything has been done before, and will be done again. Then it goes into, "To everything there is a season..." and so on.

What I learned from reading this is that I'm "chasing wind". I didn't want to rekindle my relationship with God, just so I could have my business; so that I could have vanity. The bible says we need to rejoice and pursue the things that are going to last. To "store up our riches in heaven", not on earth.

Of course I want my cosmetic line to be huge, so I always wondered who was going to take over my business when I was gone. One of the scriptures said that you may acquire what you have out of your own hard work and wisdom, but who's to say that the person who possesses your things after you're gone will have the same wisdom as you?

This is why we "won't be remembered". It's because the material things we've done may still be here, but the characteristics we possess that help us achieve thatwill leave with us. Vanity® will not be conducted the same when I'm gone as when I'm here. When we die, we take everything with us except materials. Who wants to be remembered by materials?

The bible says we are born naked, and we die naked, meaning we die without our earthly possessions. We don't leave behind our personality or character. We only leave stuff. We only leave the things that are repetitive, the things that never pass. We only leave the wind.