Meaningless

 

    Meaningless is a hard topic.  The book of Ecclesiastes can take me to some dark places.  We can easily go to dark places if we aren't constantly working out their faith.  I would say this is a book I avoid if I am feeling very vulnerable.  I will do my best to get the message accurately, but it is a good way to end the year and start a new one.  It can help you think about how you want next year to be different from this year.

    Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon, not as the king, but as the teacher of wisdom.  He starts with how everything is meaningless.  Have you ever stopped to think about the impact that has?  Meaningless is having no meaning, purpose, significance, or reason.  Who wants to ever feel like that is their life?  

    We are born, we work hard to accomplish things that most people will forget about in a short amount of time, then we die.  The earth out lives us all, but we don't treat her well.  It is like we take all our selfish impatience and frustration out on the Earth.  Things in life only have the value that we give it because everything is temporary.  

    We wake up and we may accomplish a lot or we may not before we go to bed.  It is all fairly repetitive and that can be wearisome.  Maybe you want to see more of the world.  Maybe you want to do more.  For almost everyone there is something that they want that just seems out of their reach.  There is nothing new to discover, but it would be new to you.  With every generation the old becomes new again.  However, the fundamental laws of the universe never change.

    All of that can be quite daunting.  It can take your mind to a dark place.  That is why we need to devote ourselves to the study of wisdom and knowing God better.  That is the only things that gives live lasting purpose.  It can be a heavy burden, like chasing the wind, but you are learning more than you realize.  It is hard work.  

    We obtain wisdom through knowledge.  When you apply that knowledge in life it is understanding wisdom.  It can be a maddening and frustrating process because there is no way to recording or really seeing your growth.  Plus with wisdom comes sorrow.   You see things more clearly and it can make you feel things more acutely.  It can feel like there are some problems out there that will never be solved.  

    Knowledge can bring grief because sometimes there is no good way of handling that knowledge or processing it.  It can make you responsible for things that you never asked to be responsible for.  So why do it any of it?  You will have to get through the entire book before you may be able to answer that.  

Ecclesiastes 1