Ecclesiastes and Bicycle Wheels

Do you ever feel like life is pointless? You get up in the morning, make the meals, do the laundry, clean the house, and go to bed, satisfied with a day's work. Until the next morning, when there are more meals to make, bigger piles of laundry to do, and the house somehow got dirty overnight. Are there goblins that sprinkle dirt around while we sleep?

I face this dilemma all the time in practicing. I was feeling good about the progress that I made on the music for our orchestra's pops concert until a message popped into my inbox that the music for the following concert was ready to be picked up. Now I'm back at the beginning!

Eccleseastes 1:5-6 captures this so well: "The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, And hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit" (NKJV). Does everything go in circles?

Then I decided life is like a bicycle wheel. Imagine being a point on the wheel. This poor point thinks his whole job in life is to get to the top of the wheel. He finally succeeds. But he falls down. He tries again. He falls again. Will it never end?

But the person riding the bike sees the road. Progress is made. That poor point on the wheel might not be able to see the road. He doesn't know where the road goes. But he trusts that there is a purpose in his circles.

When we let God steer our bicycle, He leads us down an eternal road. So I faithfully do my circles. I know there is a purpose in the end.