What does a man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? - Ecclesiastes 1:3 (NIV)

"Look at that!" I exclaimed to my husband. Construction workers were nailing vinyl siding on the old two-story house across the road from our lane. "They're going to have siding before me - and that's a camp!"

Even though two of our three children are grown up and on their own, there's still neither time nor money to finish a project we started more than 20 years ago - building our own house. I'm beginning to despair of ever getting it done.

We planned to put the patio roof on this year. Then, a winter wind storm ripped off one-fourth of the barn roof. What time my husband would have spent on the patio roof, he now spends on the barn roof. And that's the way it goes, year after year. There's always something.

There must be more to life than struggling day after day, year after year, to acquire things that wear out, break down, fall apart or become obsolete. Wouldn't it be better to spend my time and money on things that last?The late missionary Jim Elliot said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

I cannot keep my material possessions - they don't last. I can't even keep my life - it, too, will pass. What I CAN keep is God's love for me, the salvation He gives me through His Son and the reward waiting in heaven for me.

Sometimes I get my priorities mixed up. I forget what my real treasures are. When I get to heaven, it won't matter that I lived in an unfinished house here on earth. What will matter are the time and money I invested in things that made a difference for eternity.

When I get to grumbling about my lot in life, O Lord, remind me that it's not the "lot" but the "life" that counts. Amen.