Chasing The Wind

Chasing the Wind

Better to have little, with fear for the LORD,

Proverbs 15:16

One of the hardest things about living a busy, modern life is that family members tend to run in their own directions. Parents often have jobs away from home, and younger children spend their days in day care or school. The afternoons of older children are filled with sports practices or other activities, and the evenings and weekends can be filled with sports events or other forms of recreation. Believe it or not, the possibility of the same thing happening in their community is one reason most Amish reject machinery and choose to stay away from modern vehicles as much as they can.

Amish take a critical look at the pros and cons before they are willing to accept a new invention. They consider the effect something new will have on their family, whether it will encourage family members to work together or cause them to drift apart, and whether the cost will force them to take jobs away from the family home to pay for it.

Considering this reminds me of one of my favorite verses, Ecclesiastes 4:6: “Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.” It makes me think about my own life and about what I often embrace without question: Will this draw my family closer or move them apart? Will it cause me to work longer hours to pay for it? Am I trying to fill my hands and, in effect, chasing the wind?

It’s easy to think of the Amish as odd for not wanting to make their lives easier, but maybe we need to consider what’s truly easier—living a hurried life or working hard with your family by your side?

Heavenly Father, my heart feels heavy when I think of all I’ve added to make my life easier, when the truth is, those things have become a heavy burden upon me. Give me discernment about what my family really needs. I open my hands to You and ask You to strip away what is not necessary, what is harmful to the contentment of my soul. Amen.