Lot in Life

Lot in Life
Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him - for this is his lot. Ecclesiastes 5:18 NIV
Have you ever noticed that people seem to be so very hungry for what they do not have? I really want to blame our culture for the sickness. We live in a culture that glorifies riches instead of integrity and stardom over moral fortitude. And it doesn't help when you can completely abandon any sense of responsibility and make a fortune in the process. Remember the person that placed a flimsy cup of hot coffee between her legs while driving? She burned herself, and then sued, and she won her lawsuit! I wonder if that scenario signaled an end to personal responsibility and primed the world to walk in complete selfishness?
Our society seems a good culprit for the loss of contentedness, but I don't think that is the case. I think that human-kind has always had a sense of restlessness about it. It started when Adam and Eve had been given the world (literally), but they longed for and grasped the one thing that did not belong to them. And today, we are the same. We look past the blessings of the Lord to get what we think is better. I wonder why we feel that God has shortchanged us?
I know this will sound ridiculous, but I think gratitude is an art. I don’t think it is something we are born with, I think it is learned. And, I need to recognize that what the Lord has given me is what HE HAS DECIDED is best for me. Maybe putting down what I have is a smack in God’s face? Maybe, never being satisfied with my lot in life is like asking God for the gift receipt so I can exchange His gift for what I really want?
I am not a rich man, but I am certainly not held down in poverty either. So maybe I should be satisfied that I eat well, work hard and that I know the Lord. If a person must work hard, then it is a gift to work. That is what the Lord has given. And if a person can get a better job or live richly, by all means enjoy it as that too is a gift of the Lord. But more than anything else, it is better to know the Lord and live well in whatever He has given. Isn’t that the lot of every man and woman under the sun?