Ever get the feeling that you’re life is a boat on water and you’re treading a leak? You know, that feeling you get when everything you do seems to be so counterproductive. That feeling when nothing is going your way; when everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. Yes, that reality which we call our everyday despite how much we pray, plead and barter with the God who supposedly can change all of that and will change all of that because of His love for us. Yes, it’s the wonderful feeling we get– like being stabbed in our abdomen; and you ask yourself “why?” em>Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. (Haggai 1:5-6 ESV) Israel thought they were making a come back. Things were starting to go right. They were doing everything their religion told them to do. On the face of it, all was gravy. But it is fairly evident, that God didn’t think the same. The prophet says, “if you think you are doing everything the way you are supposed to– that is morally, and with wisdom, then you need to stop and reconsider what you are really doing.” This applies to us today! We just can’t seem to figure out why, even though we read all the books, heard all the lectures, and implemented all the good practices in our lives, why our lives are not fulfilling or why life feels so much like vanity. Haggai answers that too– “Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.” (v 9) Did you miss that? He says we’re living in vain and in failure and moving backward every time we’re supposed to move forward because our focus is all out of whack. The goal of our lives shouldn’t be ourselves. The Bible says this because if we lived longer than a week, we realize that people have so little control over their own lives that it’s futile. More than that, the small parts we even have a sliver of control over can never be enough to yield results in the entirety of our lives. More importantly, for the Christ follower, there should never be a point where we are selfishly building something up for ourselves because we don’t actually need it. Our focus should be on sacrificing our ego in submission to the will of God in our lives and reaping the benefits for the glory of God. Let’s backtrack for a moment because I know all of this sounds abruptly radical and deliriously irrational. This is actually two simple principles Haggai is teaching us: first, when we stop focusing on ourselves, we will have enough in our lives; secondly our priorities become better focused in our sacrifice. If we are living life wondering why nothing is going right, we have to ask ourselves why. It’s time to reconsider whether or not our priorities are set properly or if we’re too self-absorbed to see life for what it truly is. Let’s all take the time to reconsider how we operate in life and seek God’s glory for us.