candle warmers.

so i probably SHOULD be doing homework right now, but this thought crossed my mind like 2 minutes ago and i thought i'd share it with you, world! yay

a few minutes ago i was just chilling in my room and noticed that my candle warmer wasn't plugged in. i go to plug it in and one of the things i think is this: "dangggg, the green candle doesn't really smell anymore when we melt it on the candle warmer. should i change it? but if i change it to vanilla will the vanilla one still smell since we've melted it before? i don't want our room to smell weird.." you know, just a normal everyday decision.

then i started thinking a little more about it...a candle? i'm seriously worried about a CANDLE? hashtag first world problems. i remember when i bought that candle warmer...got it on ebay for $5 and i was feeling pretty solid because i had saved $10. one of my friends just got back from a missions trip to haiti..did you know that i can send 2 kids to school for a year there for $5? and here i am buying a candle warmer because i don't want our room to smell weird.

it reminded me of the book of ecclesiastes in the bible, when the writer is just crying out saying everything is meaningless. wisdom, pleasures, toil, advancement, riches...all of it is meaningless. it's like when jesus talked about gaining the world and losing your soul..what's the point? who really cares about buying a candle warmer? this isn't to say that i'm not going to make impulsive or pointless purchases in the future, i'm just asking myself why i'm so concerned about how our room smells when there are SO many other and better things to be thinking about!!

in ecclesiastes, the main point is that everything is meaningless IF god is not in the middle of it. if god IS in the middle of it, well then imagine the possibilities! i think of what god could do with my attention, my time, my money and i get excited because god can do SO much more with all of that than i can! everybody always says they want to change the world. i'm fine with letting god use me to change the world, and i believe he can do that by capturing the meaningless thoughts that so often fill my mind and transforming them to his beautiful vision.

"may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, oh LORD my rock and redeemer!"