“Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.”
The Feast
The Preacher, elsewhere in this book largely preoccupied with the vanity and futility of much human striving, offers this striking instruction: eat thy bread with joy, ordinary, everyday eating, transformed into an occasion for genuine joy, not reserved for rare, special celebrations alone.
This is worth noticing as a needed corrective against reserving joy exclusively for extraordinary occasions, holidays, special achievements, rare celebrations, while ordinary, everyday activities like eating an ordinary meal remain joyless, merely functional, missing the joy this verse specifically attaches to genuinely ordinary bread and wine.
Notice for God now accepteth thy works, the reason given for this ordinary joy. Not because life has become extraordinary or free from the vanity this book elsewhere names honestly, but because God’s acceptance is present now, in the ordinary, everyday activities this verse specifically describes, eating and drinking, transformed by that acceptance.
Consider today one ordinary activity, eating an ordinary meal, doing ordinary work, and bring genuine joy to it specifically, trusting this verse’s claim that God’s acceptance now makes even the most ordinary activities worth approaching with joy, not merely reserved for rare, extraordinary occasions.
Keep the Feast
- Identify one ordinary activity today, eating, working, that could be approached with genuine joy.
- Bring deliberate joy to that ordinary activity today, not reserving joy for rare occasions.
- Trust that God’s present acceptance transforms even the most ordinary moments.
Prayer
Lord, let me eat my bread with joy today, and approach ordinary activities with a merry heart, trusting that your acceptance now transforms even the most ordinary moments. Amen.
Carry this today
Joy belongs in ordinary bread and wine, not only rare, extraordinary occasions.