The Trouble Is…

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun:  The same destiny overtakes all.  The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.  Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.  Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.  Ecclesiastes 9:3-6.

 

I grew up memorizing verse 5 because my denomination believed in soul sleep or unawareness in death’s state.  Since then I’ve puzzled over the two or three basic interpretations of this passage in conjunction with others that seem to say the exact opposite.  I’ve concluded I just don’t have any definitive answers as to what happens to the dead once they die.  What the state of the dead is, as in where their spirits/souls go at death, we only have clues but no concrete enough evidence for a verdict.  I know, I know, there are plenty of stories about people who have had visions of heaven on the operating table but these stories could be based on chemical or a dying brain’s hallucinations fed by preconceptions.  I’ve also met and heard of people who have had visions or dreams, which could be inspired by desire more than actual visions.  I’m not cynical just merely pointing out the human capacity to interpret experience as fact even when it’s illusion.

So here’s my take on it and you can do what you will with it:  I don’t necessarily buy into purgatory but I do believe the soul goes back to God who gave it.  I also believe that the dead are barred from contacting the living again because of two passages, Isaiah 8:19-22 and Luke 16:31.  The first passage talks about consulting mediums, spiritists and witches to contact the dead, which in our modern setting is equivalent to a séance or psychic.  The second comes from the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man where the rich man begs Abraham to send someone from the dead to warn his brothers about his suffering.  Abraham refuses and tells him, “If they won’t listen to Moses and prophets, they won’t listen even if one comes back from the dead.”  Jesus gave them clues they missed because when He was resurrected they displayed their firm disbelief—or you could call it rebellion—by claiming the disciples stole His body while the soldiers slept.  They refused to believe even when One came back from the dead.

What I get out of these is that death is a final goodbye to being involved in everything done under the sun.  At this point in my Christian journey I worry very little about the state of the dead, the afterlife or rewards and punishments.  I do have my opinions, obviously, but I’m not worried about being right about them since I know the rules above are universal.  Yet all that said I believe what matters most about our reward in eternity is how we live right now between birth and death.  I don’t believe God worries as much about all our victories and defeats as He does the continuous trend which dominates the journey while we live.

I like Solomon’s conclusion in every point he makes, since his emphasis pushes the idea that eternity is in God’s hands so what we do now is what matters.  None of us knows what comes next really.  Oh we can claim we know by faith, which is a valid argument to me, but actual factual (that rhymed) knowledge is non-existent.  I was growing up with the view that if I didn’t have all my facts straight before I died or Jesus comes, my salvation would be in question.  Then I realized the very people teaching me this “fact” worried about whether they had their facts straight all the time.  Some flat out didn’t include all the evidence available to draw the conclusion they preached.  That last issue disturbed me.

I am now at a point where I allow myself to care about truth but don’t worry about my grasp of it as much, since I know I don’t have all my facts straight anyway.  Paul and the rest of the apostles claimed we were growing in our knowledge of Jesus and the truth of the gospel.  I take it from this none of us have our ducks in a row where truth is concerned—even them.  Growth implies immaturity or a need to become, so if the apostles were growing, what can I expect for myself or others?  Getting all the facts lined up doesn’t mean anything if we sequence them wrong.

I want to explore this a little more so bear with me please.  I watched a movie years ago (and own it now) where a scientist was working on a formula for renewable energy based on cold fusion.  The protagonist in the story wondered why she hadn’t published her findings and she said, “I have to work out the sequence first.”  The formula was intact but the sequence made a difference.  As far as I can see the truth about our dominant characteristic, humanity barely gets their facts complete before they draw conclusions about what they mean.  This is dangerous because then we have a Galileo problem on our hands all over again.  You know the problem?  Galileo discovers the sun doesn’t really move around us but we move around the sun yet the opinions based on the known facts of the day put his life in jeopardy to the point where he has to retract his claims.

He was right of course and the people threatening him were dead wrong.  Those who fight against truth are…?

Most of us wouldn’t consider ourselves evil because of the connotation we put on the word.  Our interpretation of it comes from extreme examples such as Hitler, Genghis Khan, Ted Bundy, or pick your favorite example from history and modern times we would all agree committed great crimes.  The Bible calls anything outside the character of God evil, which means that Adam and Eve became evil the moment they ate the fruit.  This doesn’t imply they were mass murderers or heinous people (though through their one act of disobedience they guaranteed the death of everyone) rather it signifies a departure from the character of God.

One of my favorite sayings follows Solomon’s assertion about madness above:  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.  Humanity keeps attempting to solve its problems by dent of human effort, planning or philosophy.  Oddly enough (insert sarcasm here), history has never demonstrated a period where their efforts, planning or philosophy actually worked but we keep trying.

This is madness.

Humanity is basically insane with ignorance, superstition and pride.  Our ignorance remains in spite of the leaps in knowledge we have made over the last century.  We struggle with panic attacks in our collective psyche because we are ignorant of the outcome.  We have a few facts for example about climate change yet without an historical precedent we don’t really know what they mean.  Every scientist I’ve listened to recently gives the disclaimer “This is our best guess” about the facts they have uncovered.  This should inform the rest of us that they are making educated guesses from the facts based on their ability to assess them not from conclusive historical or even empirical evidence.  The heated arguments over what the facts mean dominate our public forum.  Very few voices are reasoning for a moderate approach—that of taking care of pollution while not being paranoid about it.

Again, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.  I celebrate the increases of knowledge and understanding but I see our inability to deal with our ignorance as a liability.  Circumspection is a good way to live.  Surrounding ourselves with as much perspective as possible allows us to see the facts differently while at the same time giving us the freedom to forgo conclusions which might be more harmful than helpful.

Humanity in general is mad—in every sense of that word.  We are angry about our ignorance, helplessness against the elements, state of being and general luck of the draw.  We resent being out of the loop, relegated to the fallible, stumbling, and often times devastating efforts on our part to solve our problems.  Death is a cold comfort for most, while a few welcome it with open arms.  Yet even those who welcome it do so in ignorance, thinking death as a better alternative to their life on earth.  That’s not guaranteed.

All this is to say, in my opinion there is no solution but God alone through Jesus Christ.  All other solutions might be part of God’s method but without Him to guide our efforts we are going to blow ourselves up.

Don’t Be In Such A Hurry To Walk Away

Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence.  Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases.  Ecclesiastes 8:3.

Solomon warns us not to be in a hurry to leave the presence of a ruler for they do as they please.  There are good reasons for this:  1) who will influence them differently if all they have around them are “yes” men and women?  2) What if this particular ruler is different and truly needs our perspective to make a wise decision?   3)  What if the only voice of reason is yours?

We can’t guarantee our influence or the outcome, but if we quit the game, we lose by default.  If we continue playing the game, we might lose anyway but at least we put in our best effort.  I personally don’t want to live with the former as a memory over the latter because on my death bed I want to know I did my best to live for what I believed in.  We who follow Jesus know the Way to Life.  If we refuse to live in the world and participate as a part of its journey, we refuse to be the salt and light our Master told us we should be.  Our witness is not about preaching with words but living examples of righteousness, kindness and truth.

            Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.  For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him.  Ecclesiastes 8:5, 6.

What does this say to you?

What it says to me is if we “leave the king’s presence” in a hurry due to our misery and dissatisfaction with the current trends, we lose whatever voice we might have had to turn the tide of authority to good.  Look at the stories of Daniel and Esther.  Daniel became a ruler in the kingdom of Babylon, first, then Persia.  Both nations were heathen, meaning Daniel probably dispensed with commands of a king he neither agreed with nor supported on specific issues.  Yet look at the results.  Esther became the wife of a man who worshiped violent, immoral and pretty much capricious gods, yet she saved her people by being a place she otherwise would have preferred not to be.

Where has God called you to be?  Remember the above examples from Scripture and settle your mind on being a light in a dark place.  If lights shine where there is already plenty of light, they get lost in the brightness.  But if a light is placed in a dark corner of the room, it dispels the dark—even if it’s just a little bit.

Wisdom: The Latest in Fashion

Who is the wise man?  Who knows the explanation of things?  Wisdom brightens a man’s face and changes its hard appearance.  Ecclesiastes 8:1.

 

I find it strange to think about how often dark thoughts permeate even the brightest moments.  Or, that sense of entitlement which comes along with being human may have nothing whatsoever to do with what I think about myself overall but it sure spits out a lot of nonsense at times.  For instance, I might be aware that few people really pay attention to me but still think that the prettiest girl in the school should be my girlfriend, even though she probably couldn’t pick me out of a lineup.  It’s this odd juxtaposition which causes so many people not to work in harmony with one another.

A guy who won’t date that girl over there because the person in question is just too “weird” or out of sync with what he thinks of as cool, pretty or acceptable declares his own self-image.  It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t have the evidence to back it up from his social circles or even internally, the fact that he considers himself to be above the girl states he thinks he deserves “better”—whatever that is.  And, using a guy as an illustration doesn’t mean girls are off the hook because they do the same thing.  The other thing I’ve noticed is taste differences are squashed by the strongest mouth in a proverbial room.  As far as I can tell, there are as many tastes in food, love and career, etc., as there are people in the world, yet we see many people dumping their own tastes for the sake of not being criticized by those who appear more “in the know” or popular.

Both sides are foolishness.

Wisdom explains the reasons for life, the universe and everything.  Sure there are some “reasons” which escape our grasp or even ability to find out, yet when we study the big picture, the reason for much it begins to be clear.

Just take science for instance:  a lot of what we thought was supernatural turned out to be nature working in small ways.  Leprosy is not God’s direct judgment on anyone but a virus which kills the nerves; bubonic plague is simply an infection spread by fleas and other insects—which is easily treatable by the way when caught early enough.  Elves, if they ever existed, were creatures of myth leaving no trace anywhere on earth—no fossils.  The earth rotates around the sun as do all the other planets in our solar system, which in turn rotates around the Milky Way galaxy, which then rotates around our universal core.  Flies do not spontaneously generate from meat, as thought in even medical circles during the 19^th century before Pasteur proved otherwise.

Wisdom eliminates the need for conjecture, assumption and tabloid gossip fodder since by it we examine the essence of things to wring the truth from them.  It isn’t that it knows all rather it recognizes what it does and what doesn’t know, or, what can’t be known in the present moment.

We can conjecture all we want about the habits of a famous person but until we actually live with them in the daily we don’t know.  How often do we assume about another person’s motives only to find out they weren’t even on the same network as us thought-wise?  We assume what we understand the universe, God, the after life, and a host of other concepts either invented by us or discovered in some incremental way, then jump to conclusions about the meaning or purpose behind it all.

When I was a kid we were taught that God would be taking everyone to a heaven somewhere beyond our universe.  I’ve heard variations on this theme my entire life and believed it till I read the Scriptures to find out that “God’s dwelling” will be with men.  It’s stated in two major books—Isaiah and Revelation.  There will be a new heaven and a new earth, for the old is passed away and the new has come.  The New Jerusalem will come and rest on earth where the earthbound Jerusalem is now.  I assumed the people who taught me heaven only came after death or Jesus’ return knew what they were telling me to be fact, when in fact it turns out they ignored certain scripture references in order to promote their own bias.

Wisdom sees through the inflated opinions we have of our own theology.  Even though I know my original grasp of truth was more than likely mistaken, my current attitude towards eschatology (the study of prophecy), end time events, and what eternity will look like are more “wait and see” than anything else.  I took a warning from Jesus first advent:  The people in-the-know recognized Him as someone special, saw His miracles then crucified Him anyway because He scared them.  We don’t like to be wrong.

I’ve decided He’s right and I’m wrong and I’m in this walk with Him no matter what comes.  I don’t understand the big picture nor can I grasp all the details of prophetic truth.  What I do know is this:  Jesus loves me.  I know His word changed my life and gave me a different attitude about it.  I know that His promise of heaven beginning in the here and now on earth is a fact in my own heart—whether or not anyone else appears to accept it or experience it.

Have you ever seen a woman who you didn’t consider to be a “beauty” by whatever standard you measure such things, suddenly become gorgeous once you get to know her?  By the same token, women who fall in love with a man often don’t declare how “handsome” he is rather they focus on a trait that just endears him to them.

Wisdom changes a person’s appearance by its very nature to create a more peaceful, happy and contented outlook—Solomon claims it softens one’s hard facial expressions.  By dent of this very result, I hereby declare wisdom as the most effective fashion upgrade of any in the history of human effort.

I Predict the Future Will Happen

When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad consider:  God has made the one as well as the other.  Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.  Ecclesiastes 7:14.

 

The hardest thing humans have to deal with is the unknown.  Now there happen to be quite a few “unknowns” we have the ability to figure out, like scientific discoveries, math equations, medical research, and other things along those lines.  However, much to our chagrin and discomfort, we still have no failsafe method of predicting the future.

Following the argument Solomon presents about man’s place in creation I get the feeling we aren’t allowed to know the future more than it being a problem of ability.  The reason God “predicts” the future is because (as C. S. Lewis postulated) He lives in the eternal “now” and time itself is a dimension of creation which He invented outside of His own existence.  Humanity is subject to time even if we subtract death and become eternal.  For us life happens in the linear sequence of events and thoughts, growth and development, and I don’t think this was changed after the fall to what we know now.  What changed for us is our relationship to time as a factor in our existence—we ended up with a limited amount of life instead of the original design of eternity.  And, the only reason to measure the quantity of something is because there’s a limited supply of it.

Yet even with eternity as an option our “now” did not include the past or future but whatever thought or action we found ourselves doing in the moment.  How the past remains a part of our existence therefore is merely in memory; how the future becomes a reality is in the way we prepare for it through choice—planning won’t affect the future unless it includes choices in preparation.  We will always be living in the future for every moment in the now was only a possibility the moment before.  So in some ways we dictate that future by either the habits we develop over time or the choices we make in the now.  Our “now” is limited to the moment we are in, whereas God’s now exists in a completely different dimension outside of our grasp.  Knowing He lives in this alternate dimension is easy to acknowledge, what it is or how it forms around Him is the mystery.

If we look at the future as an equation, which many in the stock market attempt to do, it works like a theorem—if a + b = c, and c – e = d, then (a + b) – e = d; d is now the unknown factor in our equation.  So attempting to predict all the variables gives us a sense of the future.  Since God made all the variables, He, even without His ability to see the whole thing from outside, could predict the outcome with better accuracy than humans.  We see a limited number of variables and almost always forget one, if not more, in our calculations.  It’s tough to be an analyst because one must look at trends to set precedent for the predictions.  If the trends are headed one way but the market’s dark underbelly is another, then unless that analyst knows what’s brewing under the radar (which is doubtful) they will fail in their forecast.

Some things are predictable by behavior alone, such as smoking will increase the possibility of cancer; drinking to excess will most likely lead to alcoholism, etc.  Yet these by themselves are not guaranteed outcomes for there will always be exceptions to the rules.  One man I heard about when I was a kid lived to be approximately 120 years old and his daily regimen was strong whiskey and cigars.  The average person would have ended up with either lung cancer or liver failure if they had consumed one or both of those over just a 50 year lifespan let alone 120.  So behaviors can predict general outcomes (the future) but are not guaranteed as cut in stone.

God (and I’m referring to the Jewish-Christian deity) doesn’t want us making decisions based on forgone conclusions, fear, psychic readings, confidence or behavioral patterns but wisdom drawing from a well of knowledge.  Anything else is suspect at worst and merely a good indication at best.

The Creator of All or Nothing

Consider what God has done:  Who can straighten what He has made crooked?  When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider:  God has made the one as well as the other.  Therefore a man cannot discover anything about his future.  Ecclesiastes 7:13, 14.

 

For a long time, reconciling God—as opposed to reconciling with Him—took most of my time, due to the education we all get as a part of the general popular teachings of Christendom.  In most instances it was pretty simple to deal with things I didn’t understand in my youth because experience in the course of time opened up my heart to grasp them.  What haunted me is the possibility God might have created evil, and that just didn’t reconcile with the God I’d been taught to believe in.

It also didn’t seem to resonate with New Testament theology at all, which is probably why many theologians dismiss Solomon’s assertions as a lesser understanding of the truth about God—a theology which believes in progressive enlightenment.  My problem with this latter reasoning is that what is said in Ecclesiastes has to either conform to God or the whole book must be removed from the canon.  It cannot teach us truth while simultaneously teaching us lies and be of God.

I am more convinced than ever it should remain.

One reason is that Jesus quoted from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in His own teachings.

The other reason I’m convinced of the spiritual validity of this book is conclusions about life Solomon draws from the facts he sees around him.  Our key verse above pronounces something quite profound if we give it a chance, which is:  God made everything that exists—even the bad.

Let’s take an example from technology.

When an electrical engineer designs a computer they place all sorts of fail-safes in the wiring to protect it.  The software engineers then go to great lengths to ensure no programming other than what the computer is designed for will be accepted to protect its purpose.  By default of design, whether they set out to do so or not, they build into very nature of a computer not only its purpose but how it can be destroyed.  Each chip can be struck with a hammer or touched by a magnet and rendered useless.  While the designers may not have intended for a hammer to hit the chips, or any part of the unit for that matter, the fact they manufactured a product out of silicone coated metal and plastic ensures a good hit with any blunt instrument could destroy or damage it.  Therefore these very creative people by default built into their device the means of destroying it as well as using.

Of course, some see my rationale above as a “duh!” moment, thinking it a forgone conclusion and therefore not worth mentioning.  Unfortunately, we don’t live/reason/argue in community together as if this rationale were reasonable or a forgone anything.  In fact, we tend to argue the other way—you know how the argument always goes “if god is love, then why….” …or, why are there starving children in the world?  Oh, I know another one, why is there oppression?  Oh, oh, I know, why does God allow suffering?

All of these are legitimate questions without an easy answer to them, since the people asking them are usually more interested in voicing their frustration over listening to anything remotely positive.  On top of this type of attitude there’s the constant question as to whether or not there really is a God or Creator period.  All of us have been in arguments where the other person or people refused to hear our side of the discussion, basically ignoring any answer we give and generally harping on one point as if it answered all ours.  By comparison it’s like a pet objecting to taking flea medicine or pooping outside to us, or a child who complains about how hard his or her life is when asked to clean up a mess they’ve created.  If we acknowledge our part in the problem, our questions tend to be deflecting our responsibility by yelling about God’s “mistakes” as if He made us to be evil.

We created the mess.  We continue to mess up our world, relationships and grasp of reality through faulty reasoning.  Faulty conclusions based on even good evidence generally fail to take into consideration our part in making the mess in order to blame it all on God.  My favorite argument (to be read with dripping sarcasm) is:  “If God doesn’t like me like this, how come He made me this way?!?”  …Bad reasoning based on a myopic, slanted reading of the evidence.

If we subtract God from our equation in any form, the choice will work like a divergent line in a geometric drawing.  *insert graph of choices here*  It might seem obvious to some reading this but for some reason we don’t act like it is.  We argue against God by asking some very good questions without any desire to dig deeper into the discussion in order to find an answer.

By default God created sin.  If sin is a choice against God by choosing to live in even a small way outside His design, then that small directional choice will arrive somewhere other than God intended.  It would be like aiming at a bull’s eye from 30 feet away and being just one degree left or right of center.  That small angle would determine a miss for the dead center of the target.  God created every angle we could use; every choice possible came from His inventive mind.  I believe this is why so many religions and modern minds believe in either a dual natured god or none at all.  Because evil exists it stands to reason the god or entity which invented what we call “creation” would therefore own both natures.  Such an argument is completely reasonable without the existence of Jesus.

The moment Jesus enters picture as incarnate God, sent to reveal the mind of the Father, another completely different picture emerges forcing us to draw another conclusion.  If, as James claims, God cannot do evil nor be tempted by it, then all we’re left with is the conclusion the state of creation as it stands today is our own fault.  We misused His resources and truth, justifying our actions with ignorant arguments based on the best we can come up with outside of referring to the authoritative Word on the subject.

When I look around the world I see the devastation and disharmony everywhere.  Sure there are pockets of peace and community, but mostly I just see problems either in development or full blown disaster mode.  My conclusion is, of course, based on my best estimate of what all of this means according to my perspective.  I study the Bible with a certain bias (which would take too long to write down here) and filter, both of which affect the way I reason it out.  I can’t say I’m right in my conclusions except to declare these are best I can come up with at this moment in my journey.  The fact is, none of us are without this bias, no matter how “objective” we think we are.

If God has made us to live in harmonic sexual monogamy, then choosing to break or change the boundaries of our sexual expression will result in all sorts of divergent combinations.  Saying God made us to do this is misunderstanding Him not necessarily wrong as a conclusion, for if He created us in pairs of male and female, it stands to reason stepping outside His design will result in all sorts of other pairings.  Since He created all possibilities, all the other choices come from His design by default.  Sure there are limited ways to express our sexuality because the objects or life forums available are limited, but that still leaves a multitude of ways to be sexual outside the plan.  Arguing we were born this way might be a fact of nature, though that “nature” is the consequence of a choice made many generations before us.  The current studies on genetics suggest our state of being depends on the programming of our ancestors.  In other words, a great, great, great grandpa consumed certain mind altering substances or practiced a specific habit then produced children with one or both of those programs written in his genes.  As a result we might end up with food allergies, alcoholism tendencies or a host of other conditions and habits.

A study of adopted children demonstrated they not only carried the physical traits of their biological parents but practiced many of their habits as well.  Just look up studies identical twins separated at birth and we see not only are they identical physically but often mirrors (meaning what the reflection in a mirror does to any image) or echoes of each other.  This is not by accident but design.

Now this genetic truth doesn’t dictate the future, though it does indicate how we will choose to occupy said future in some way.  We won’t necessarily be dictated to by our genes because the environment influences us as much if not more.  Yet we cannot deny the truth of programming in ourselves either.

So by creating something to operate within certain parameters an inventor or manufacturer also sets up a host of choices outside the planned operation procedures by which the creation might be used.  If God creates all the options, then every choice had to be created by Him too.  What we choose to do with His creation depends on whether or not we accept the manual.  If we do, we will proceed to study it in order determine how best to navigate all the possibilities.  If we don’t, we will experience the natural consequences of going outside the boundaries of our design.  Just because there are options outside the fence doesn’t mean we have to choose them; but once we do, we cannot blame God for the results.

God names the results of rebellion pretty clearly and considers any choice against the boundaries to be such.  Even if He created what is outside the boundary, it doesn’t mean He intends for us to choose it.  Freedom dictates choices; choices dictate options; options must be tied to the boundaries in order span the possibilities.  Yet just because something’s possible doesn’t mean it should be acted on.

An illustration to expand on that last sentence:  Gravity exists as a means to tie us to earth and keep us from floating off into space.  Yet its very existence offers the option means of suicide exists as well.  A tall building exists within the parameters of gravitational forces thus rendering it a tool of our death if we use it as a jump off point.  The attraction of gravity meant for a positive outcome is not being used for an evil one.

So this is why I believe God created both good and evil and how it’s possible for Him to do so.

Dream Talk

As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.

Much dreaming and many words are meaningless.  Therefore stand in awe of God.  Ecclesiastes 5:3, 7.

 

Whenever we see a repeated phrase in Scripture, we must sit up and pay attention because there’s always something to learn.

Solomon uses the natural to illustrate the artificial.  Weird dreams come as a side effect to stress or intense situations, be they good or bad, since the brain is trying to process whatever is causing it.  The dreams hold significance only in so far as they come naturally and, in our modern understanding, demonstrate the mind’s ability to analyze and store the information pouring in.  Unfortunately for those who would like to place more emphasis on them than they warrant, these dreams don’t mean anything profound (outside of the fact that the brain is an amazing organ) because our brains do the same thing a computer does when it updates files and organizes them (where do you think humans got the idea from?).  So ultimately they are meaningless, which means we can’t put much stock in anything we see in them.

As with these types of dreams, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.  A person who lacks understanding uses a cascade of words to convince or impress, all the while unaware it results in the exact opposite effect.

Mom used to tell stories about her kids as little tykes often enough that many of them became family legends.  One of them her and Dad would laugh about every chance they got was of me at the age of 2 or 3.  At the time we attended one of the local churches where there was an older gentleman serving as an elder.  As luck would have it, he prayed the longest prayers anyone could, and if you know anything about Protestant church traditions, this would be the prayer just before the sermon where all the requests were brought to the alter.  Everyone loved the old guy but Dad told me he was “windy”, meaning he talked a lot.  From what I remember of the story it seems these prayers were up to 10 or 15 minutes long.

This one Sabbath during the pastoral prayer (did I mention this was a “kneeling” time as well) he began his liturgy in full force.  As time went by the little red headed boy kneeling next to his dad began to wiggle, then squirm then open one eye and whisper,  “Now, Daddy, now?”  “Shhhh, no not yet.”  This went on for the longest time, and from what the folks told me, it was probably one of his longest prayers.  At this point everyone was a little bored and/or annoyed with kneeling so long, just wishing he’d quit.  “Now, Daddy?”  “No, no, shhh, just a minute or two more.”

Little boys have ants in their pants according to my parents, so you can imagine me as a little red headed bundle of energy sitting still for anything more than two minutes as a miracle.

“…And, Lord, we thank Thee for hearing our supplications and answering our prayers.  Ahhhhhhmen.”

The little red headed boy jumped up and exclaimed in a voice only toddler’s have, “Aaaamen!”

Mom could never tell that story without beginning to giggle and by the time she was finished with my “Aaaaamen!” she was in full hysterics remembering how the congregation burst out laughing partly from relief, partly from the fact that it was a child who spoke. It could only happen with the perfect timing of a little boy expressing what they all felt but were too respectful and steeped in tradition to say anything.  To be honest, I don’t remember doing it at all.

While I respect the old man’s relationship with God and his desire to speak the needs of his brothers and sisters, in the public setting he ignored the attention span of those listening, which resulted in something less than a blessing.  In this context his earnest, sincere and wholly appropriate prayer in a solitary place became meaningless and something of a burden to the congregation.  Was he a fool?  Not really, but even if his words had meaning to God, who probably looked down with affection for this old patriarch in his idiosyncratic and somewhat misguided fervor, after 5 minutes the message held no meaning for his fellow church members.

If we’re honest with ourselves, all of us are fools at one time or another.  We speak when we should be silent or listen, are silent when we should speak, and the problem cycles back around for the rest of our lives.  It isn’t that some don’t have a sense of timing about speaking or silence, it’s just that most of us follow our urges more often than wisdom.

In the context of our passage above we must think carefully about timing, for God is in heaven and we are on earth.  He is wholly other, holy (meaning set apart and special), distinct and worthy of respect as well as reverence.  I don’t think He minds us pouring our hearts out to Him, whether in joy or sadness or some mix in between, but I do believe He expects to be treated differently than we would a human king or president.

 

Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.  Proverbs 29:18.  (NIV)

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.  Proverbs 29:18.  (KJV)

 

Dreams of this sort in Proverbs are not the point Solomon’s trying to make; although, I would argue that far too often people who ache to do something important dream up revelations from God.  I’ve had people approach me with “a word from the Lord” which was so far off base that I wondered how to break it to them.  A person who receives a word from the Lord will hesitate before saying anything because revelation only comes through prayer, fasting and change in the attitude of the one called to speak, folks.  Anyone who lives outside of this regimen is dreaming about being prophetic instead of the real thing.  I would go so far as to say that anyone who snaps off revelations without first a lifestyle of being in the Word, meditating in the Spirit and giving themselves over the change that brings has nothing to say but is the fool who multiplies empty words.

I say this because I’ve been that fool.

I also believe that many of us want to see miracle in action, so we attempt to manufacture it or conjure it up through impressions we have about others.  A word from God must be validated through the testimony of at least one or two others.  To confirm that it is actually the Spirit we have to be careful that we are taking the time to test our own spirits.  This is to confirm the Word of God is being revealed and not some vendetta or prideful power grab or something in the line of pushing Him into doing what we think should be done.  This is not magic, folks, we don’t dictate the outcomes of anything but are simply the conduits of His will.  What we reveal or know must be founded on the wisdom that comes down from heaven or it is of human origin—even if it is scriptural.  Misapplied Scripture is as good as lie, for the father of lies misquotes the Word of God even to God Himself.  We would do well to take warning from Satan’s temptation of Christ in the desert.

One of my nephews tells me I’m missing that room where people bounce thoughts around before expressing them.  He thinks I go straight from thought to words without any form of deliberation in between.  Though this is not always true, it is something I’ve had to develop.  It isn’t that my folks didn’t try to teach me discretion, on the contrary, they tried very hard.  It’s really more about a decision I made early on to be open and authentic; not realizing how harmful full disclosure could be to those who don’t practice it.  Most people aren’t authentic, let’s just be honest with ourselves.  Even I am reticent to speak to certain realities in my internal life for fear of censure instead of help or sympathy.

My point isn’t about authenticity, however, it’s about speaking too much.  I use lots of words in order to convince people to believe me, which has the exact opposite effect.  The more the words, the less the meaning and it doesn’t benefit anyone.  I’m learning to choose my words, edit my thinking so that when whatever I say becomes succinct and poignant rather than confusing.

When approaching God, however, we are not merely speaking to an equal.  Our speech must be tempered with reverence, awe and respect.  God is not common.  God is special, beyond the pale and deserving.  I doubt I know how to speak to Him properly anymore than anyone else, but as I grow to know Him my respect and sense of difference does too.

The Trouble with Vows

When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it.  He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow.  It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.  Do not let your mouth lead you into sin.  And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands?  Much dreaming and many words are meaningless.  Therefore stand in awe of God.  Ecclesiastes 5:4-7.

 

I’m pretty sure this is one of those passages many would rather relegate to the Old Covenant and never think of again.  The reasoning goes, “Jesus revealed God as loving and personal.  How can He also demand such special treatment?”

And right there is the problem with most of our “modern” views of God.

We give the president of the United States more respect than the Creator of the universe far too often.  To treat God as a common being is a mistake, in my opinion; one which the contemporary church in America has perpetuated to its own hurt.  We buy into the “name it, claim it” variety of Christianity forgetting His sovereignty and ignoring all the lessons of those who came before.  We read NT stories like Ananias and Sapphira, recoiling at the thought God would actually punish such an action with death.  Our reasoning is faulty, our conclusions about godliness and righteousness out of step with Jesus and our sense of what true love is based on brokenness few desire to fix.

How do I know this attitude pervades the church?

I own it.

Oh, I admit to fighting it in this public arena, but I struggle to like this part of God’s personality/character.  I don’t want strictness but leeway.  And if we’re all honest with ourselves, in some area of our lives or another we all want the same thing—that is, for God to excuse some trait or sin in our lives so we can keep on doing it or so we don’t have to look at it.  To get even this reconciled to our text has taken me years.

Yet our reaction in the West has much to do with the attitudes which pervaded the East and Europe in times past.  Jesus made God approachable by proclaiming Him personal.  This changed how we see God as a whole for we look at Him through the cross.  However, in contrast to the austere, severe and disinterested God of past centuries (perpetuated by church hierarchy often to secure their own power and position), twentieth century Christianity took it to the other extreme and made approaching Jesus a casual thing.  Now I’m not saying this is everywhere in the church, rather that I’ve experienced these two extremes in an almost schizoid (which means out of touch with reality) dual personality way.  The reality is somewhere in between these two extremes, which makes both of them true, although only a half truth taken by themselves.

In my late twenties I made a vow to God, which I have tried to fulfill to the best of my ability.  Before that I made another vow which I kept for a long time until the pressure to conform took over, so I compromised.  I’m not sure of the ultimate consequences of either, though I know there are some in minor areas for the latter.  However, the vow I kept has resulted in censure from leadership, mild interventions on the part of family or friends and lastly a lack of financial security.

Though I know grace covers all, every act carries natural consequences—and not just the bad deeds have outcomes.  There’s a sarcastic saying which goes, “No good deed will go unpunished” which is snide way of saying doing good often results in loss and ingratitude.  The losses I have endured have been mostly in the relationship arena.  I can’t sustain certain relationships because of how I choose to live.  Some important people in my life keep their distance and avoid any conversation about my work.

You wouldn’t think being dedicated to working for God and working hard to not be a burden on the church would arouse censure, but it does.  Or, may be a better way to say it is the way I interpret the calling on my life definitely does.  This is gist the first vow (which I found recently in a Bible dating from 1987):  “I vow to serve God in whatever capacity I can full time, full tilt, no holds barred.”

The second one dealt with media.  I grew up Seventh-day Adventist and in most circles around that time they frowned on going to movies or watching TV shows except for news.  So I vowed to abstain from all media and keep my head clear of all these distracting voices.  The problem came with my band—they all did both, not being raised the way I was.  One day the leader of the band told me the rest of the folks felt I didn’t want to hang out with them.  We had a long talk about my vow and what it meant.  In his mind I had made a foolish promise that God would look on as silly.  The pressure continued for a couple of weeks.  I know my story probably sounds ridiculous to some of you reading this, but I’d like us to consider the nature of our take on God through my experience.  I eventually folded after much prayer and agonizing over the issue.  Not only was I bucking the conditioning from my heritage but also working against this very text, which I knew well at the time.

For years afterward I feared God would destroy the work of my hands.  In some ways the suspicion is still with me in the dark corners of my psyche that the current state of my music career is due to this broken vow.  Whether or not this is true, I can’t really say.  What I can say is that I came to God humbly aware that for me to reach into people’s lives I couldn’t be a recluse.  Writing songs amounted to some worth for the kingdom but it was in relationships where the real work began.  I realized my vow had isolated me from not only my friends but most people I would reach out to for Jesus.

I began watching TV and going to movies with the band.  Not a lot, but enough to show friendship.  To this day I limit how much I take in, not as part of the vow but for the sake of focus.  At this point in my life I can safely say I’m not a conservative or liberal in my thinking about these things.  In other words I don’t buy into either ethic as sacrosanct or the final word on righteousness.  My purpose here is different than you might imagine.

Our mistaken perspectives push us into all sorts of vows, arbitrary rules and foolish “spiritual” takes on very ordinary things.  As I grow in a knowledge of Christ, I realize more and more how very broken we all are and in our efforts to staunch the hemorrhaging in our spirits we create elaborate rules and erect formidable walls of doctrine to limit our baser passions.

All for nothing.

Jesus made something clear,  “Of yourselves you can do nothing.”

Anyone—and I mean Anyone!—who believes we change our own natures by personal effort misses the point of the cross.  Later Paul chimed in on this subject by stating emphatically, I can do all things through (Christ) who gives me strength!  Do you see the difference?

My vow had to do with my own efforts to be remain pure and untainted by the world—a godly goal.  The only problem was it didn’t work to keep me pure.  My thoughts were no less sinless than anybody else; my actions no less arrogant spiritually or more in tune with God’s Spirit.  What I find is that we fail as believers to strike a balance between what is and what should be.  To be blunt, I doubt most people really have a good (or even fair) grasp of what “should be” over anyone else.  Legalism is based on human efforts to improve ourselves so that we can approach God.  Since no one can approach God except through Christ, our efforts and rules are wasted.

What brought me to my senses about vows came in the form of a small story in the book of Judges (10:6 to 12:7) where Jephthah made a vow to God to sacrifice whatever came out of his front door first for a winning edge in the war he was about to fight.  His vow came from a lack of faith, first off, and in the second place, he forgot or didn’t know the law concerning sacrifices.  The first one to greet him on his return wasn’t a dog or goat or lamb but his only daughter.  I don’t know what he expected when he made the vow but the wisdom of it seemed to escape him.  He sacrificed her to the Lord as he promised.

Unnecessarily.

The law clearly prohibits human sacrifice.  Look it up and study what God said through Moses about such things.  Jephthah’s ignorance set him up for heartache.  His God (as opposed to gods of the nations around him) considered such a sacrifice abhorrent and abominable.  The sad truth is his daughter died for a foolish vow.

Ananias and Sapphira, on the other hand, made a similar promise to pay the entire proceeds of the sale from a piece of property then lied to renege.  Peter’s question to Ananias was paraphrased, “You could’ve given any portion to God you chose because the land belonged to you.  If you hadn’t wanted to give it all, God would not have had a problem with that.  But instead you promised all then held some of it back, which made your promise a lie.”  The vow turned out badly for both he and his wife.

Solomon’s assertion that we need to be reverent and differential when approaching God, however, still applies.  Yes!  He is interested in us.  Yes!  He loves us with a passion we can barely comprehend.  Yes!  He longs for us with an aching heart we cannot begin to fathom.  Yes!  He is personal.  Yet in all of this He is still wholly other and set apart (the meaning for the words “holy” and “sacred”) for specific reverence, respect and communication.  Jesus came to show us how personal God is in contrast to what the law seemed to imply (which it didn’t, we just interpreted it this way), at the same time, never do we see Him suggesting God as common.

My conclusion?  Instead of grabbing onto a specific view of God and running with it we need to add it to our list of characteristics.  If a human being is both good and evil, happy and sad, successful and failing—and the list could go on—all at the same time, then God created multidimensional creatures capable of being many things at once.  If this is true of His creation, then what does it say about the Creator?

As to vows, I say we should stay away from them until we have some inkling as to what we are doing.  Much heartache and unneeded stress comes from ignorant promises.  A vow—any vow—before God is never to be taken lightly or left unfulfilled.

Approaching God

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.  Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.  God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.  As a dream comes when there are man cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.  Ecclesiastes 5:1-3.

 

We humans talk too much.  I know plenty of people who talk wa-a-a-ay less than me, of course, because I’m a wordy fellow, yet I also know that when it comes to prayer silence is not as popular as pouring out our hearts.  This is pretty natural since we don’t dialogue with God very much at all.  Still, though we live in a new dispensation and paradigm, listening is always better than talking.

Confession time:

I talk to God all day long.  I’m always telling Him things I am thinking or discussing the next move at work.  I know it might sound silly to some of you, but I can’t stop the flow (at least at this stage) because words are how I connect.  Oddly enough, I know I listen—even through all the profuse one-sided conversations we seem to have.  How I know I listen is that when thoughts squeeze their way in between the cracks of my profundity, I stop to chew.

I have a long way to go before I’ll be able to use my ears and mouth in proportion.  Thank God for grace to grow!

Yet the point of Solomon’s exhortation isn’t lost even on a person like me.  The main issue is to gain an understanding God’s place in the universe as well as our hearts.  He’s big, bigger than anything or anyone, yet able to inhabit my heart.  The phenomenon of a God who holds all of creation in the palm of His hand being in my heart—or even interested in my life—is amazing enough.  Yet size only matters to those who use it as a means of power over others (or get their value from it.

We talk about God running and sustaining everything yet sometimes just don’t recognize what that means.  Sure He takes care of all the big stuff like planets, nation building and certain people’s careers, but these things are the more obvious things.  Where it really gets interesting for me is that each cell has a power pack inside it that scientists are still trying to unravel.  Why do these amazing organisms continue to operate sometimes long after their host dies?  What supplies them with the life force necessary to keep performing their function?

I believe God’s life force permeates everything and everyone.  This same power emanates from a being who is not only sentient but intimately personal.  He created one of the most person acts we humans experience then compared it to His own relationship with the Godhead and us.  I know a lot of people who are weird-ed out by God’s claim to be spiritually “sexual” with us, but their problem stems from their lack of understanding not the act itself.  Sex is intimacy not just pleasure; it’s pleasure not just intimacy.  The two go together on purpose for God illustrates through this one act what is in His heart for us.  Now we, on the other hand, have so many issues around sex and intimacy that some (probably many) experience real difficulty when this subject comes up.  The problem isn’t with God, it’s with us.

We pervert the works of God then blame Him for the outcomes.  We twist our natures around pleasure, power, wealth and selfish ambition then resent Him for being bigger than all of us.  All of us struggle to look at pretty much every faucet of life without the cataracts of sin.  It isn’t God’s fault that we’ve perverted intimacy into something narcissistic.  So why can’t we grasp His goals for personal contact with us?  Our twisted POV prevents us from being healthy enough to experience the fullness of God.

Can you picture God’s presence as both overwhelmingly awe-inspiring as well as pleasurable?  The orgasm becomes a mere simile for experiencing God.  The more I know God in His purity, and thus realize my own perversity, the more I know everything within His context is clean, clear, beyond my imagination to experience and full of deep spiritual meaning.  We must get beyond our perverted twists on God’s creation; for if we don’t, we end up with nothing more than Victorianism disguised as piety or going after something for merely the pleasure of it.  Human rules will never prevent the sinful nature from expressing itself nor will we ever find satisfaction in just pleasure.

Jesus changed all the rules of coming to God when He became human.  It’s weird that at first we’re told to be careful when we approach God, then have Him call us friends.  “I have called you friends…I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn’t know his master’s business.  Instead I have called you friends.”  Why?  Because He let us in on God’s mind and plans, that why!  He shared the heart of God rather than just the rules of a boss or king.  Jesus got intimate with humanity to demonstrate the desire of God’s heart—a reconciled friendship with us.

Why did He do this?  Because He wants to be intimate with us!  He shared His very soul in coming to earth by being born, living and breathing as a human.  He experienced everything a man can experience besides marriage.  That should tell us something about the nature of God in relation to humanity.  It should enlighten our dark understanding of the divine and set us on a course for greater pleasure in the presence of the Source of pleasure.  We use the word “joy” to replace happiness because we fear God isn’t concerned with our happiness; yet it was He who created our ability to be happy.  We wouldn’t know the word or emotion if He hadn’t invented it.  We need to get over our perverse self-denial so that we can practice it in the context of heaven’s gift in Christ.

Does it strike you as weird that God invented pleasure?  Then chew on this:  He created foods of all stripes then gave humans taste buds in order to enjoy them.  He created flowers, scented plants and animals then gave humans olfactory glands to appreciate them.  He created colors with so many hues we cannot invent enough combinations to encompass them all, then gave us eyes with brains encoded to be overwhelmed by a sunset or whatever.  He gave us a reproduction apparatus then made it a pleasure to procreate.  He gave us ears and made voices sing, birds warble, lions roar and mountains rumble.

Our God “dwells” in unapproachable light, yet loves us so much in a purely intimate way He sent His own to be one of us.  Yes, we need to be in awe.  Yes, we should be reverent.  Yes, we should be overwhelmed.  Yes we ought to seek intimacy and be pleasured by His presence.

That is just utterly amazing.

Timing is Everything

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:  a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and time to uproot, a time to kill and time to heal, a time…  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

 

There are some who believe that a person can justify just about anything they want through the Scriptures.  If that’s true, here’s a great starting place.  At the same time having the Bible spell out what is normal for our lives isn’t a bad thing as far as I’m concerned.  It appears to me that without this list many of us might dismiss certain emotions or realities within our psyche we otherwise could benefit from expressing.  So let’s look at them in a list:

 

A time to…

 

Be born/die

Plant/uproot

Kill/heal

Tear down/build

Weep/laugh

Mourn/dance

Scatter stones/gather them

Embrace/refrain

Search/give up

Keep/throw away

Tear/mend

Silent/speak

Love/hate

War/peace

 

Of course, some of the list is just stuff to which most of us would say “duh!” but think about how Solomon moves from the basic to more complex stuff.  The first two deal with lifespan and sustenance but the third one jumps right into a complicated and debatable issue.  A time to kill and a time to heal…might seem to be excusing or giving permission to bloodthirsty people to have their way in society, but really I don’t think Solomon isn’t even suggesting such a thing.

There are times when killing becomes imperative because the health and safety of many would be compromised if a violent intervention didn’t take place.  Unfortunately, political manipulation uses this very argument to decide to go to war over investment issues.  Yet examples abound where the innocent will suffer if we don’t intervene.  The problem with mankind, in my opinion, one which keeps us from doing things in a timely manner, is that we will do as America and its allies did, attack Iraq to get rid of Sadaam while completely remaining neutral in a place like Sudan where child warriors were committing atrocities we’ve only now begun to see.  It’s oddly surreal that the genocide of that country’s civil war awoke very little desire in the nations to intervene.  Sudan didn’t have anything we wanted so we ignored it hoping it would go away.

Libya does, so the world stepped up.  (Other than oil, they provide a strategic place for the Allies to put their forces if necessary.)  I’m not harping on the political rightness or wrongness of our actions, just the inconsistency.

The time to kill also includes trees, animals and host of other things with life in them—some sentient, some not.  I don’t even pretend to know the right or wrong times for any and every situation, but I know a few of them and there are several statements in Scripture which clarify when it should happen.

 

Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.  If you say,  “But we knew nothing about this,”  does not He who weighs the heart perceive it?  Does not He who guards your life know it?  Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?  Proverbs 24:12.

 

Believers who work extra hard to provide for their families, set up a secure environment, preserve moral decorum, and generally live a good life, have often fallen short of this mandate, I believe.  We are so concerned about issues which are outside our control that we fail to get personally involved in the lives around us.  We may not have the power to change the political direction of the country we live in, but we do have influence.  We might be a small pool of light shining in the darkness, but it’s enough for those lost in said darkness to see their way.

The truth is, however, that we don’t need to practice politics to influence the world around us.  If by one loving example a person who otherwise wouldn’t know any different sees one of us practicing generosity, what will their response be—especially if it’s to them?  I don’t know, but the opportunity to show God’s character should never be wasted.  If He rains His goodness down on the righteous and unrighteous alike, we as His children should as well.  If we represent the attitude of heaven, we will consider vying over scraps of human gold or valuables a waste of time.  The whole universe is ours for the exploring and experiencing, so why are scrambling to get a pittance of the American or any other human dream?

Saving those who are being led away to slaughter is just one area in which we shine like stars in a dark cave of madness.  The fact that most of us don’t see this testifies to our need for spiritual shock therapy—which didn’t work in humans but seems to be a favored method of the God we serve.  The best lessons we learn are those in which we have to suffer, because generally we don’t pay attention without pain.  C. S. Lewis claimed,  “Pain is God’s megaphone” since it gets our attention.  The problem with our reaction is we seldom recognize that target of His wake up call, preferring instead to rail against our bad luck, lack of faith or His lack of provision.

Though everyone born is bound over to death, hastening that appointment with the grave by letting the innocent go without even trying to prevent it is so unlike our Master!  No one who ignores the problem will be commended, from what Jesus said.  We are held to a higher standard that, even while knowing we can’t meet it, we must strive to conform to through the renewal of our minds.  The time to be born and die finds its kin in the plant and uproot/kill and heal theme.  We cannot deny these to be related since everything in nature points to such a theme as true.  What we can’t seem to get through our heads (and may be I’m just speaking for myself here) is without God’s direct presence influencing us, our choices in any of these matters will veer off the mark.

Someone might ask, however,  “What about God?  Why hasn’t He intervened in these atrocities?  Where is He when this stuff goes down?”

Good question and it can only be answered by pointing out the Scripture we just quoted above from Proverbs 24:12.  The finite beings must show a desire to save life in reflection of their Master’s character before He will act….

Whew!  I didn’t mean to get sidetracked by this subject but I need to finish this thought…

…We humans act like God should step in every single time there’s a war or a killing spree or some other disaster of nature or of human origin.  The nature ones I can understand a little, the human caused disasters, I don’t.  Humanity declares itself the penultimate of intelligence, thus taking on the status of gods, then rails at the Supreme Being for not intervening in their self-caused atrocities and disastrous choices.  Sorta’ like saying to society,  “So what if I drink and drive?!?  It’s not my responsibility to be safe, you have to watch out for me!”  Does that sound logical at all?

We don’t want God to perform the necessary character changes in us which would prevent all those bad choices from even getting off the ground, but we sure want Him to prevent the consequences.  Sin is the wildcard in the mix of the human poker game with God, since it brings to the deck a Joker with all he entails.  The problem is we want to be able to keep this “freedom” to do as we like but at the same time demand God intervene on our behalf when it brings death or destruction.

When I was a kid I remember riding on the back of my grandpa’s station wagon and getting sick as a dog—headache, nauseous, etc.  I didn’t know what caused it until I began to recognize that every time I had this reaction it was because of a vehicle’s exhaust.  Another issue dawned on me that took years for me to recognize the source, fairly debilitating headaches bordering on migraines.  When I was 19 a back specialist from Loma Linda instructed a group of us on sitting and standing posture and I eliminated most of my problem.  Denying that exhaust is harmful to humans is living in denial.  Denying that our posture—i.e. sitting all day or standing wrong—doesn’t affect our wellbeing is simply out of touch with reality.

Yet we do this all the time with sin.

The problem humanity faces isn’t all that hard to recognize once we admit there is evil rampant in our world.  It also stands to reason that we aren’t going to eliminate all the evil there because sometimes it’s downright impossible to distinguish the righteous from the unrighteous.  The concept of a time to kill and a time to heal offends most of us peace-mongers because we hate the idea of bloodshed, as we should.  But the reality in a world maddened by sin is we can’t escape the need for violence when the violent will not be reasoned with at all.

It isn’t that we don’t get instruction from God about all of these truths, it’s that we don’t recognize the them when He shines them in our face.  It isn’t the systems, it’s sinful people trying to control the world.

The Best of the Uselss Choices

I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.  The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.  Ecclesiastes 2:13, 14.

 

Remember Solomon is speaking from a point of no eternal hope.  He has no knowledge of Jesus or any real understanding of redemption as we know it because that revelation had not been born or even clarified until Isaiah’s time.  I’ve heard critiques of his POV and wondered how anyone would think to dismiss the truth in his words just because he lacked the knowledge of salvation in its revelation through Christ.  I know that in past discussions on this blog I’ve called the Jewish leaders on the carpet for rejecting Jesus, but they were different in some respects to Solomon for they watched a revelation unfold in front of their eyes and still chose to crucify Him.  Their POV held more value to them than the God they claimed to serve.

Solomon’s wisdom guided him to experiment with life, sure, and he failed God badly, but in the end this book declares the simple profound truth of what he discovered about our bottom line as humans.  In this declaration he left nothing to doubt but openly stated God should be our number one priority.  By this statement of loyalty, I see a sliver of hope for redemption for this wayward king.  I know the story, but I think this book opens a window into this man’s soul, jaded, bitter and remorseful as it was.  I believe, though, had he met Jesus, wisdom would’ve won him over to follow Him.  It might seem to be an assumption on my part, yet look at the evidence written here in the book and you’ll see this man was guided by wisdom.  The only wisdom which exists comes from God and even those who don’t acknowledge ours as Lord of the universe cannot attain any platform of wisdom without tapping into His mind directly or indirectly.

The difference wisdom brings to a life over one of foolishness is being able to see versus being left in the dark.  Clarity brings a certain satisfaction to it that ignorance can never attain.  The old sarcastic saying, “Ignorance is bliss,” communicates the stark line between reality and fantasy.  The wise at least are able to enjoy all that life has to offer without being ruled by anything.  In other words, though the wise understand the futility of chasing the temporary pleasures of life on earth, they also know that these pleasures are supplied by God for mankind to enjoy.  They were never meant to be lasting things, so trying to capture them is chasing the wind.

 

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.  All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.  I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.  And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?  Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun.  This too is meaningless.  2:17-19.

 

The wise man dies and leaves all he worked so hard for to someone else—not knowing whether his successor will treat it wisely or squander it foolishly.  There’s something to this which is best understood in verse 22-24:

 

What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?  All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest.  This too is meaningless.

            A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment.

 

The problem with those given over to death is that our Designer never intended us for sin, which in turn means we weren’t designed to die.  Our accomplishments were meant to be enjoyed forever as we grew into more and more able projects.  The heart which sins dies; and any heart which is born under our sun is subject to sin therefore subject to death, which brings futility with it.

But do you see how smoothly Solomon brought God into the picture?  He makes it abundantly clear that a man cannot find satisfaction or enjoyment without Him.  This is what convinces me that Solomon repented at the end of his life because he writes this truth down for his posterity to ponder.  He’d spent his life searching out what was good for man to do under heaven and finally comes to this conclusion, which is quite telling coming from such a wealthy and accomplished man.  Yet he adds a promise to his statement above that takes us one step further into God’s mind, verse 26:

 

To the man who pleases Him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over the one who pleases God.  This to is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

 

How this works out for those who follow God is not clarified in Solomon’s statement of God’s intent.  As a follower of Christ I know how the promise works itself out in the end.  Solomon saw a bare glimpse of the fact in his day from a limited perspective of the works of God.  Jesus revealed the true meaning behind these words by showing us the wealth of God grew in our spirits—those who worship Him will do so in spirit and in truth.  What we possess or own is of little consequence to God, rather the truest form of wealth is in who we are in Christ; that pearl of great price, the treasure we would sacrifice all we have to obtain.

Still, even in the temporary wealth we gain on earth, the promise of wisdom, knowledge and happiness proves a sure thing.  Yet we need to clarify at this point just who the sinner is in contrast to the man who pleases God.  Through Christ we know a righteousness based on faith and not works —for without faith it is impossible to please Him.  Therefore this promise is for those who walk by faith in Christ for they alone please God.  We are all sinners, for sure, but those found to have a righteousness not of their own but through Jesus move from death to life—the greatest treasure of all.