There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25) If you ever thought that the grass is greener on the other side of your job, home, family, kids, and friends, I want you to think again. The reason you want to think again is because the writer of the Ecclesiastes, King Solomon, says that there is nothing better than the “toil” that he or she is granted in life, which he recounts, is from the “hand of God” (or gift of God). Let me delve into those ideas as you start flashing through your mind’s eye about the things you complained about (your parents, your spouse, your boss, your pastor, etc), the things you’ve abhorred (the co-worker, other people’s habits, the smell of waking up to the dump truck, etc), the things you wish were better in your life (finances, job, education, relationships, etc). The reason, you want to flash through those things in your life is because those are the results of what Solomon calls “toil.” I want to call “toil” the summation of one’s life, that is to say that “toil” is the embodiment of all that you are in life up to this point. If you think about it, then you would realize that you spend so much time complaining about your life, that you come to realize that you really hate being yourself and would, if you could, be somebody else in a different circumstance. Obviously everybody, including myself, has some aspect of life that they would change if given the opportunity, but that’s not the point. The point is that there is so much that we would change than to enjoy the liberty of being in the life we had “toiled” to obtain. If you don’t know what I mean, just ask your immigrant parents or grandparents why they worked drudgingly horrible jobs their entire lives and they will tell you that their enjoyment was the opportunity that may have resulted from the “toil” would be bestowed upon their progeny. Whatever your toil, I want you to think further and understand that you are exactly where you are because God has given you the gift of your life to place you exactly where you need to be. The point of God’s hand being on you for this reason is simple: to enjoy the glory of God in the toil of life. What does that mean? It means that there is nothing better than where you are now as long as you understand that the purpose of it all is to live into the weight of God in this world at this moment where you affect everything and everyone around you. This is what is most enjoyable in life– that which is from God. I want you to take it all, the sorrows, the sadness, the madness, the hardships, the unfairness and embrace it because there is nothing better for you and me than to enjoy it as a gift from God to live in to what does not seem glorious to God but really epitomizes God’s glory in the living through it. Jesus’ toil on Earth ended in being crucified, an inhumane method of capital punishment; but he enjoyed it for the glory of God that is us– co-heirs with Christ in God’s kingdom. The grass is more green than you think, just don’t forget you’re stepping on it.