Hope in the Hearts of All People (written by Liz Eagle)

⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.---- Ecclesiastes 3:9-14


We began our conversation at the Free Store today as we always do when going through the book of Ecclesiates: trying to figure out where we left off.  We've been going at it for a few months when I lead and we kind of just get to where we get.  I truly love this book because it shows the helplessness of mankind and the hope God gives, hardly changing the tone in between.  Life is what it is. It may be shitty sometimes but God has a plan for it and we grow into stronger people in the long run, if we just hold on!  (Not to reference any early 90's pop music or anything)


One thing I like about this group of people that sit around the table with me on Tuesday is the diversity.  No, I do not mean in a skin-tone sort-of-way.  I mean real diversity.  We have all been in so many places.  From being very wealthy and becomming homeless, to experiencing extreme love and loss, being imprisoned to being homeless, having homes but seeking to find fellowship...  We truly come from all walks of life, both good and bad.  We are on all spectrums.  The book of Ecclesiates touches on just that.  "For everything there is a season and a purpose under heaven."  


We see in our friends with whom we share increasingly personal information that we have all experienced hardship.  Similarly we have all experienced God's grace in the midst of it.  There are days when we show up to the Free Store, just needing to vent about how we feel and where we've been.  There are days we just need to silently listen.  But the glory of it all is that we are evolving to a place where we can empathize with one another and see what the verses we studied speak of that "God has placed eternity in the hearts of all men", letting us know that there is a hope beyond what we see and a glory to be shared eventually.


Our friend Megan shared of her brother and sister-in-law hoping to be parents but being told they were unable, Joelle stating her similar situation and a gifted pregnancy 5 years ago, Donald expressing his hurt at the loss of a friend, George explaining the happiness of having amazing friends like Jack and Judy who have helped him tap into his God-given gifts of academia and art.  Good and bad situations arise but we are blessed to have eternity to look for and friends with whom to travel on the journey there.