Someone once told me that the book of Ecclesiastes was depressing. So until a few years ago, I stayed away from it. It was one of those books in the Bible I didn't expect to learn much from, given to the same lot as some of the books of the law: not very enriching (in fact, the analysis of God's requirements of holiness for His people is actually quite enriching.)
The repeated theme in Ecclesiastes can be summed up in three words: "everything is meaningless." Depressing, right? Everything you do on earth is lost when you die. In essence, your life is meaningless. No matter what you do, you still die. People are always oppressed. They are always greedy.
As I'm sure you have guessed, the fact that I started this post saying I was told the book was depressing means that I plan to contradict that statement. So here I go:
Although not defined by depression, this year has had its admittedly depressing moments. In those moments it takes the realization that everything is meaningless to comfort me. I am meaningless; my life is meaningless. I will not last. Because I will not last, my problems will not last. All of my worthless pursuits in life do not matter. With that realization, I don't even need painful situations to improve themselves. I simply realize that my problems don't matter, that God is everything. Ecclesiastes concludes by telling us to remember our Creator. To seek God with our lives. Everything else is meaningless. That includes girls, academics, parents, stress, worries. It's all meaningless. It doesn't matter. Only God matters. And trust me, God is far better than any of these things. So only let your heart be troubled if you find yourself at odds with God, (which we all tooften do). Focus your heart on the One who matters. He will take care of these meaningless peripheral things that we focus our worries and prayers on. Always remember that we and our pursuits are meaningless. The only meaningful pursuit is to follow God.
4 comments:
Wow. Very nice. I wrote a paper on Ecclesiastes once. My conclusion was that Solomon was saying how everything under the sun was meaningless. The only thing that gives meaning to our otherwise meaningless lives is God. Our lives definitely do have meaning if we live them for God, but everything outside of that is meaningless. Our hobbies and experiences in life do have meaning if they are for God. Not everything we do is meaningless. So I only slightly disagree with you. lol
well that's what i mean haha. if they are done in pursuit of God they have meaning. so you're right, because without doing things you can't pursue God. If I included things done for God as meaningless, then we could just sit around and do nothing haha.
Nice dude. You totally took my next post, though. I was hitting the same topic from the Pauline epistle direction. I may have to title it Everything is Meaningless... Pt. 2
Well said. Everything is meaningless without God.
I've tried it now both ways.Without the Holy spirit drawing us and the cleansing blood of Christ we have no hope, and everything in our life meant nothing. Without Jesus there will be no followship with God the Father.
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