🕊️ For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I? For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good before God. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind. 🕊️

Ecclesiastes 2:22-26

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Now I understand many things, where I once only pondered an explanation, and just came up with my own conclusion. My best work or labor, in the days, weeks and years before my retirement; there were many different trades and types of careers I was blessed to be able to work, Among them there were two, which were my favorite: Carpentry and Social Work. The one has nothing to do with the other. 

As a carpenter, my only focus was on the contracted project, what materials I needed to accomplish my work and deliver the completed work when I agreed to have it completed. During these days I felt the most “real sense” of accomplishment, standing back at my work and feeling joy in what I created or accomplished. It was almost like I ‘created’ things or made them new again. When I saw the look on the face of my clients, in most cases, they were very happy with my work. There’s always exceptions but i will not share those here.

As a ‘CCG’ or ‘Community Choice Guide’, a job i was not happy to perform, I enjoyed only two things:

I was well paid and the money supported my growing family and at a time when we really needed it, and the most important, I had built a reputation of successfully accomplishing my contracted goal. Some of my methods were non-conventional and outright questionable, however they brought results. This work was the most difficult and challenging, working with different types and classes of individuals and their unique circumstances, which they all were filled with an incredible amount of drama.

Thank You Father for this day!

Thank you for my life!

Thank You for my sweet bride and our beautiful daughter!

Thank You for showing me the way through, during the most difficult of challenges in my life, to see the other side of my goal from the start, and realize its completion. I can see now Father, so many things, and as I meditate on each of them I see Your hand at work. During my days of working as a carpenter, my task was to fix things, create new things. I took what was broken and made it new, I took raw materials and build and crafted something new, which made my joy complete, walking away with a “Real Sense” of satisfaction, and nothing was left undone. During my days as a CCG, I realized how much the work as a carpenter, prepared my way towards fixing so many broken lives, using principles of crafting a solution within the dimension of time and within a budget provided, in meeting a point of crossroads for my clients, a way forward, to the next chapter they needed to continue their life journey. Thank you Father, for teaching me so many things, about others, like me, but in their differing circumstances, we each experienced need and desperation, reaching out to anything or anyone who could help. You helped me Lord, in and through my need and desperation. You’ve showed me real “Joy”  and “Real Sense” of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment.

Thank You Lord, for all of it! I pray Lord, may I share and instill in my daughter, a “Real Sense” of life and meaning and purpose. May I prepare her for her life journey, where You will be there to catch her when she falls and when she has great need, in Jesus’ name, Amen!