All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” – Gandalf
It’s true really. We only have so long on the planet and we have been given the freedom of decision as to what to do with the time that has been given to us. We have an allotted time on the planet to grow up, mature, learn stuff, relate to others, find someone to share the journey with and slow down to the cadence of our last heartbeat. Life becomes quite simple when we consider our time like this. Time is my decision and the steps I take are mine. There is obviously a lot more to it than that, but in essence we are given years if we are fortunate, to populate with memories before our hearts tick their last. My mum says we are all filling in time between now and when we die. That is also true. The gap between our birth and death is often considered as the dash on our tombstones. Our dash symbolises everything that we will set our minds and hearts to that will make the meaning of our stories. The challenge then becomes to fill in our time well. Looking at that ‘dash’ of time, it becomes a choice to ladle in all that is good, meaningful and that which will hopefully leave a story for others to tell.
You can always tell if a movie is great or not at the end when the credits roll around. If it’s an okay move you just get up and walk out. However, if it has deeply affected you, you pause and sit and watch those end credits rolling around. There is a silence in the theatre as everyone just lets what just happened soak in. The emotion you experience is a sense of gratitude. It’s not necessarily gratitude for the actors or the effects. It’s a sense of gratitude that helps you to be grateful that you are alive because the story you have just seen demonstrated that life can in fact be better, deeper and more meaningful than you thought. You experience a pause. If I consider legacy, I think there is a part in all of us which hopes in the future for people to listen to our stories at our funeral because our life gave people a pause that caused them to ask ‘how can I be like them’? I want my life to show my children and friends that life meant something and I showed others that they can in fact be better, deeper and more meaningful than they thought. This I think, would be a gift I was able to pass on….
The content of Ecclesiastes reflects someone looking back on a life that was long on experience but short on answers. This book is important to us because of its raw and honest vision of life. The book kicks off with a statement saying "Everything is meaningless, completely meaningless!". Humorously I exclaim, wow, that’s so encouraging! The Teacher narrates their personal experience of journey and tries to find meaning in a series of examples by having wealth, wisdom, popularity, and pleasure. As the teacher tells his story he denied himself no pleasure. He devoted himself to having great wisdom. He acquired great wealth, and yet all of these things lead to disappointment. He lived his life experiencing all the vanities in life, yet he looks back in his life with regret. Everything became meaningless, like chasing the wind. In some ways, it is like my Mums story of filling in time before you die but finally expressed in deep disappointment. It’s a sad conclusion.
Leading one's existence with the sole reason to acquire the vanities in life - wealth, wisdom, popularity, pleasure- ultimately leads to disappointment. When I break this sentence down the words ‘sole reason’ are key to understanding purpose in life. If our sole reason for living this life is devoted to a vanity, everything becomes fleeting and flippant with no real lasting value. So what matters in life and how do we derive meaning?
Ecclesiastes speaks to the pain and frustration brought on by a life devoted to the distortions and inequities which define much of the world we live in. A devotion to the uselessness of human ambition, and the limitations of worldly wisdom and a lack of standing up for what is ultimately right. In many ways the whole book can be seen as a bit of a downer unless we are able to consider the purpose the author had in writing it. Qohelet ( a Hebrew word meaning preacher) warns us against a life caught in the pursuit of absurd and empty pleasures that have no lasting value.
The deep learning is a life without God is pointless. Ecclesiastes teaches us to enjoy the life we have here on Earth and at the same time, it teaches us to not only pursue the vain things (wealth, popularity, pleasure) - but to reflect, and to always remember our Creator. When people live to be very old, let them rejoice in every day of life. So how does one rejoice?
Even in the writer's desperate search for meaning and purpose in life - God appears as the reliable, satisfying and remaining presence. The writer states that "there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then they also discover that these pleasures are from the hand of God" (Ecc 2:24). It is a relationship that can be formed with God that I believe is the defining reason for our existence on the planet. It is his love found in the human heart that is both transformational and redemptive and enables us all to rise above our humanity to something of a higher purpose and calling. Viktor Frankl is a man amply qualified to write of such things as he survived the trauma and harrowing effects of a concentration camp to discover five vital discoveries to being fully human. One of them is as he writes a thought which transfixes him. I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth – that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the greatest secret that human poetry and human belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. Frankl refers several times to the words of Nietzsche: “He who has a ‘why’ to live for can bear almost any how.” And the Bible states - Also, even if there are injustices in life, we can trust Him and follow Him. "In due season, God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds" (Ecc 3:17). We see in the sacrifice of Jesus that there is no greater love than a man who would lay down his life for his friends. And who are his friends? The greatest discovery is to find that all of us are friends of God, his beloved children.
Ultimately, the great truth that we can learn from Ecclesiastes is that the acknowledgment of God's presence will determine our true meaning in our lives whether we are in despair or success. Knowing God is not defined as an unknown quantity or a distant relative or neighbour from the suburbs. That definition fails to satisfy an acknowledgement that a relationship exists. I can say I know of God but lives miles from where he is or I can say I know God because he has visited me and I have begun through my prayers and reading of him to know him more deeply. He is near to me. As another preacher states I can be out on the lake in my boat listening to Jesus speak but am I in the same boat as him? Meaning and purpose are about proximity and so I deduce from all of this that my posture and proximity to my saviour will determine to a large extent my peace of mind and knowing whether I provided my family and friends with a good pause…or not.
Paul De Jong, my pastor says when God comes into your life and comes into the centre of every season, the hardest and the greatest, there is a realisation that you are not alone and you are able to weather any storm or mountain. You don’t have to overreact. You can be true and vulnerable with your humanity and yet you can be real to say ‘God, you are leading me’….We serve God with the best that we can do. We are not perfect but we give it our best shot! You discover meaning to life.
We are all called to have faith in God and that is faith that says God holds every part of the equation of life. I conclude with the place from where I began - All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” – Gandalf
i see God in symmetry.
i see God in our make-believe.
i see God in our grand attempts
to make something beautiful
before life ends.
i see God in irony,
in fragile heirlooms within children’s reach.
i see God in our damaged good,
but you see God in ways i wish i could.
you see God in ways i wish i could
without instruction
without obstruction,
you believe.
without container,
or dualistic framework,
you see the Holy Ghost in broad daylight
and i see the reflection in your eyes.
i see God in healing bones,
in the sanctuary of our homes.
i see God in the wilderness,
in our magnetism to recklessness.
black or white or vivid colour,
after a while, it all runs together.
our stained-glass means nothing without light.
i see God in our damaged good,
but you see God in ways i wish i could.
you see God in ways i wish i could
without assurance,
without insurance,
you believe.
without condition
or the promise of heaven,
you see the Holy Ghost in broad daylight.
and i see the reflection in your eyes.
i see the reflection in your eyes. – Ryan o Neal (Sleeping at Last)
