Fall Line

It’s that time of year again! It’s August and school is about to start. Whether you want to admit it or not, summer is almost gone and fall is just around the corner. That means here at LTL we are hard at work, creating the Fall Line! We have found some really nice products and we have some great design ideas for them. We are very excited to premier the Fall Line to you!

The passages we chose for the 2011 Fall Line are chapters 1 and 3 of Ecclesiastes:

Ecclesiastes 1

Everything Is Meaningless

 ¹ The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

 ² “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
   says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
   Everything is meaningless.”

 ³ What do people gain from all their labors
   at which they toil under the sun?
⁴ Generations come and generations go,
   but the earth remains forever.
⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets,
   and hurries back to where it rises.
⁶ The wind blows to the south
   and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
   ever returning on its course.
⁷ All streams flow into the sea,
   yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
   there they return again.
⁸ All things are wearisome,
   more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
   nor the ear its fill of hearing.
⁹ What has been will be again,
   what has been done will be done again;
   there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰ Is there anything of which one can say,
   “Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
   it was here before our time.
¹¹ No one remembers the former generations,
   and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
   by those who follow them.

Wisdom Is Meaningless

 ¹² I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! ¹⁴ I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

 ¹⁵ What is crooked cannot be straightened;
   what is lacking cannot be counted.

 ¹⁶ I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

 ¹⁸ For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
   the more knowledge, the more grief.

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

 ¹ There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 ² a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

 ⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

 ¹⁵ Whatever is has already been,
   and what will be has been before;
   and God will call the past to account

 ¹⁶ And I saw something else under the sun:

   In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
   in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

 ¹⁷ I said to myself,

   “God will bring into judgment
   both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
   a time to judge every deed.”

 ¹⁸ I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. ¹⁹ Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. ²⁰ All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. ²¹ Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

 ²² So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

We are very excited for you to see the 2011 Fall Line. Keep checking the website, this blog, facebook and twitter to find out the date of the premier.

Tornado Warning

This past April bad storms devastated many places in the US. The storms produced tornadoes that ripped through some areas, causing major damage. People lost their homes and some people even lost their lives. It was a horrible time and I’m sure everyone was praying for the people affected.

During those storms last April, multiple tornadoes touched down in Glade Spring, Virginia, only 45 minutes from the Live the Life Offices. Hundreds of houses and businesses were destroyed and 7 people lost their lives.

At Live the Life we believe God calls us to help our neighbors in need. Two days after the storms hit, 3 of the Live the Life team members drove to Glade Spring to work in a Distribution Center. The Center collected donations from generous people in the area and gave them to people who were affected by the storms and were in need. They had collected everything from food, pots and pans, to clothes, toys and furniture. It was truly amazing to see all the donations people had given. 

During the day we met a lot of people that came into the Distribution Center to get the supplies they needed to live after the devastation the storm brought. One woman told us how she had 13 people living in her house because they had all lost their own homes. She came to the Distribution Center to get food to feed everyone. Another woman told us how her trailer was rolled over three times with her and her family inside. She came with her two year old for food, clothes and toys because she lost everything.

Driving around the area after our shift at the Distribution Center was over, we were amazed at how terrible the damage actually was. Trees were blown everywhere. Houses were in pieces; with holes in their roofs and walls you could see into every house. Semi-truck trailers were flattened. The roof of a hotel was blown off. And storage garages were ripped to pieces. It was worse than we could have even imagined. 

We will always have these people and their stories in our minds and pray for them everyday. Please keep them in your prayers as well.