I indeed baptize you with water . . . but He . . . will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Matthew 3:11.

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30.

I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation. Psalm 13:5.

There is an ongoing battle within me. Pride. I want to be right. It’s a lonely place and a place teaming with all of mankind. And yet, each morning I come to Creator God – Father…Son…Spirit, with confusion of thought because there is so much I don’t understand in this world and in myself. And sitting with Him in quiet, I find healing love, grace, forgiveness, hope. Pride of place cannot exist when I am with God. I am humbled and grateful. I can’t solve the problems of this world. I can’t solve my own troubled soul crying out for help. He can. He does.

I wish I could say I understand our next chapter, Ecclesiastes 6. I shy away from the words that do not bring hope. Everyone’s toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied. What advantage have the wise over fools? What do the poor gain by knowing how to conduct themselves before others? Better what the eye sees than the roving of the appetite. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Whatever exists has already been named, and what humanity is has been known; no one can contend with someone who is stronger. The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone? v. 7-11.

The final verse cries out for something other than our limited understanding: For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone? v. 12.

I can’t imagine a reality where I don’t know God. Responding to His call whispered into our hearts opens our lives to hope. The pain we have suffered at the hands of others and the violence and hate in the hearts of mankind do not testify against God. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His thoughts bring healing. What humanity is has been known…and it will not save us from ourselves. I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:50-57.