Fair Withdrawl

The White County Fair is here...my favorite time of summer...I have looked forward to this one week of summer for pretty much all of my life. At first it was the animals, then it was exploring the projects, then actually making the projects....walking animals, endless card games, naps in pens, watching the queen get crowned...the list goes on. The fair was something that I did really well...not to brag...I took home good ribbons most years and even got a few trophies and my name on the leader boards year after year. 

The younger members looked up to me, I spent hours during each fair helping younger members finger out their projects. People around the fair knew who I was...I basked in the glory of leading people through the barns showing off my animals and ribbons....filling them in on random facts about each species that none of them probably wanted to know.

My ten years were up two years ago, but last year I did the queen contest which was enough for my fair time. So this year is my first fair week without anything to do: no animals to walk, no ribbons to show-off, no breed facts to memorize, no milkshakes to make...nothing. The week is mine to do whatever I want...yet all I want to do is do what I always did best...be a 4-Her. I spent today begging others to let me help them...to have something to do, but it still isn't the same.

I guess something inside me thought that the dozens of ribbons, few trophies, and names on the champion boards would earn me some sort of spot in the fair hall of fame...to be remembered....false. All of this leads me back to Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes. He comes to the conclusion that everything under the sun is meaningless. Money is really worth nothing, knowledge doesn't earn anything of value, success doesn't last forever...everything under the sun...meaningless. 

When I first read this I was shocked...could it really be that everything was MEANINGLESS?! That is a pretty harsh word. It's true...those ribbons and honors won me fame while it lasted, but that perished. Being a 4-Her added to my identity...but who does that make me now? Being on the champion boards gave me affirmation...but that name will soon peel off the boards like the rest. Everything was meaningless....especially when you try to think of a circumstance in which knowing all the body parts of a chicken will come of use.

Now I'm not saying I regret my ten years...I just want to give members a heads up to not let the ribbons become your identity....your identity can only be found in one thing...the cross. Everything under the sun really is meaningless in the long run....