Day 5 of 7, a study on purpose after the paycheck.
There's a version of retirement I catch myself drifting toward some weeks, where effort gets rationed the way money used to be, held back just in case there's not enough of it left for later. I don't actually know how many years or how much strength I have left, so some part of me wants to spend both carefully.
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."
Ecclesiastes 9:10
Solomon wrote this while thinking hard about how short life actually is, which makes the advice land differently than I expected. He doesn't say to ration your effort because time is short. He says the opposite: do whatever's in front of your hands with everything you've got, precisely because time is short. Not later, once you've saved up enough energy. Now, on whatever's actually there today.
Volunteering three mornings a week isn't a smaller assignment than the career was. It's just what's currently in front of my hands, and it gets the same "all my might" the old job used to.
Today's Question
What's in front of your hands today that's been getting less than your full effort?
A Short Prayer
Lord, don't let me ration my effort out of fear about how much time is left. Whatever's in front of my hands today, let me do it with everything I've got. Amen.
God bless,
Paul