Meaningless
I’ve read through and reflected on Ecclesiastes this week in preparation for Sunday’s sermon. For the most part, it felt like someone was holding my head under water till the bubbles quit coming up and then they would pull me up for air. If you’re feeling a bit too good about life, take a moment to read through Ecclesiastes. You’ll come down off your high quickly.
Meaningless, meaningless…utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless! This isn’t the best way to start a journal entry. I look at the stack of books next to me and the knowledge I’ve gained and realize that I’m just going to die like the guy who didn’t read those books. I see a picture of a mountain I’ve climbed and Ecclesiastes has the mountain looking at me a laughing. Whether I live or die means nothing to that mountain. I’ll be dead in a handful of decades and the mountain will still be there. The fact that I climbed it…meaningless! You’ve traveled to distant countries. Acquired great sums of wealth. Experienced all the pleasures that life can bring. Meaningless! All of it!
Ecc 2:24-26; 5:18-20 – Here is the point of all the meaninglessness the teacher goes on about in Ecclesiastes: When God is at the center, all things, including the work you set out to do, all things become meaningful.
Each one of us has multiple stories playing out in our lives and we hope they will find a happy ending. The reality is, all stories are meaningless unless they are centered in God’s Story. We begin our journey through The Story this coming week. My prayer for you is that you will find your story within God’s Story so that God’s Story becomes your story. God has written a beautiful narrative and He invites you to join Him in what He’s doing in the world.
"You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."
St Augustine