The great German philosopher Goethe said in the last days of his life:
I have been esteemed one of fortune’s favorites; nor will I complain or find fault with the course of my life. Yet truly, there has been nothing but toil and care. And I may say in all of my seventy-five years that I have never had a month of genuine comfort. It has been a perpetually rolling of a stone that I have always had to raise anew.
Wow. That’s a pretty dismal picture of a man looking back over a lifetime of work.
Contrast that with Saul of Tarsus — better known as the Apostle Paul — who said at the end of his life, “I have fought the fight, I have finished the course, and there is waiting for me a crown of righteousness from God.”
Now that’s contentment, now that’s a life worth living.
