Brushes and Paints.

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher.

"Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless."

-Ecclesiastes 1:2

I found this particular verse by reading a devotional put together by Martin Luther. At first it comes across as incredibly emotionally driven and ridiculous; and Solomon's intentions were just that, he was basically venting when he wrote it and came to his realization through his rant.

This guy owned everything. like, literally.

He had slaves, entire vineyards, basically all of Jerusalem... no jokes, if this guy wanted it, he could have it within a day. He goes to the extent of saying "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure" in 2:10

So obviously, the tangible things: Food, wives, followers, palaces, the grand typical wants of the times. But atop that, he had an immense amount of self-derived wisdom. He soaked up every bit of everything he could and took it to heart. He was a ridiculously intelligent and wise man. On paper, this cat pretty much had it made... He lived the American dream by starting from scratch and building himself up using his own sweat and blood.

and then the next verse comes.

"Yet when i surveyed all that my hands had done and what i had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun."

I think in a conceited sort of way, I deep down consider myself to be relatively wise for my age. I've put myself through a substantial amount of unnecessary problems that I've gathered wisdom through. But it goes on to say that unless the wisdom in me isn't of God, it's meaningless. "like chasing after wind" it says.

Solomon basically speaks down to people like himself who live like they're living on this place forever. He poses the question of "why live like this?" Why live to form some image, to build up some massive stage to stand upon, when in an incredibly minuscule time frame you'll be gone from this place.

An image is something that everyone has, whether they like it or not. It's just been recently brought to my attention that my image has absolutely nothing to do with me, other than the fact that my body wears it. I'm to be sculpted. I'm the blank canvas that God paints.

I have a say in the matter obviously, but I'm making a pact right now to work on handing over the brushes and paints.

Up a creek without a camera.

He saved a million men starving from their lack of bread and ripped their souls from the tempters hands by taking lashes from lesser men striving for a heavier purse.

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That was the start of a post i planned to finish a week ago. I never got around to it. However, I liked the sentence, and feel that it should stay... so I hope you enjoy.


So a good bit has happened.

-I've graduated from high school and my sights are set on LU, which I'm not entirely stoked about.
-I'm putting every ounce of my graduation money towards a Canon EOS 400D Digital Rebel XTi, 28-135mm and 70-300mm lenses, and a tripod. Unfortunately for me, my graduation money combined is worth not even half of what I need... so most of the summer will be working towards it.






Now, I kinda find this selfish. Despite the fact that the camera will probably be used more for others than myself, it's and incredibly hefty dent in my wallet. Even more so, that's a lot of money going towards me. Me has a heck of a lot of things. Me doesn't exactly NEED this camera, but wants it very, very, very badly.

I have this very bold and audacious (I don't know if that's a word, but I'm running with it,) idea of taking pictures of life and working them into stories in this blog and really giving people something to learn and experience. And I feel with such an able camera, and with all of the research I've done, I can achieve that.

Thanks to the wise words of Steve last Sunday, I prayed about this purchase. I'm kinda waiting for something to pop up and be all like "STEPHEN, PUT ALL OF THAT MONEY TO SAVE THE CHILDREN IN AFRICA!" And I actually expect an answer much like that one, but so far, haven't received it. I've even gone to the limit of finding what I could to to serve with this thing. Cause I mean, at the end of it all, it is a thing. That's it. But my desire for this thing has driven my to put most of my money into it.


Is this bad?




















I'm trying desperately to make this a good thing.










I mean, perhaps the beginning sentence does in fact relate to all of this.