Live Like Someone Left the Gate Open
Dads
This past Sunday, at my home church, our pastor preached from Ecclesiastes 1. It hit home, because it lines up with one of my favorite phrases. My wife and I have it posted in our home: "Live Life Like Someone Left the Gate Open."
It pictures a cow that finds the pasture gate swinging free. She doesn't hesitate or wander back to the barn. She runs.
Scripture has been saying this for three thousand years.
Solomon: Life Is Hevel, So Receive It as a Gift
The Teacher opens Ecclesiastes with a heavy word: "Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless" (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
The Hebrew word is hevel, literally a breath or vapor. Think of your breath on a cold morning: it's real, you can see it, but you can't hold it. It's also the name of Abel, whose short life was a breath (Genesis 4). Solomon isn't softening it. Life under the sun cannot be captured, hoarded, or held onto.
But he doesn't tell us to despair. He tells us to receive the vapor as a gift from God's hand:
"A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God." (Ecclesiastes 2:24)
"Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do." (Ecclesiastes 9:7)
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom." (Ecclesiastes 9:10)
Solomon's gate is open, and the clock is running. We can't hold the breath, so we live it gratefully.
James: A Mist That Appears for a Little While
"You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:14)
James echoes hevel. He says it so we'll stop postponing what matters: the call, the apology, the prayer, the ballgame, the long walk with your kids.
Moses: Teach Us to Number Our Days
"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:12)
Numbering our days isn't morbid. It's the beginning of wisdom. We stop assuming there will always be more time.
Paul: Make the Most of Every Opportunity
"Be very careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." (Ephesians 5:15-16)
The Greek word for "making the most" means to buy back, to redeem the time. Every day is a purchase, and you decide what it goes toward.
Jesus: The Gate Is Open, Walk Through It
"I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture." (John 10:9)
"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)
Solomon shows us that life apart from God is vapor. Jesus shows us the answer to the vapor. He opened the way to abundant life now and eternal life to come.
A Word of Caution
"Live like the gate is open" is not a license to live recklessly. Solomon ends his book with the guardrail: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Freedom in Christ means running toward the pasture, not off the cliff.
Hey, Dads, Your Move
Life is a vapor, and Scripture never pretends otherwise. But the Giver of the breath has left the gate open.
So today:
Say the thing you've been putting off.
Pray with your family, not just for them.
Put down the phone and be present.
Run.
"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24)
What's the one thing you've been waiting to do with your family?
Do it! THIS week.
Flat-Footed Conviction. Wholehearted Grace. Better Dads.
Ron Maxson, Jr. | The Dads Prayer Coach
