Ecclesiastes: Part 3...Pastor Phil Strong

2-13-11

Text: Ecclesiastes 2

“I’ll be happy when ________.”

For some, you had an immediate response. For others, there was a bit of hesitation. Still, for some, you can’t remember the last time that you were happy.

Whether or not we have committed it to paper, we all have a vision, a mental strategy, for filling in the blank. I would venture to say that if we have attempted to fill in that blank, the paper has worn thin from erasure.

● For some it was your dream job, but the company has since gone out of business. For some, it was a house that has now gone back to the bank. For others, it was a relationship that has since disintegrated due to ‘irreconcilable differences’.

            Even more troubling: those who still have the career, the home, the spouse, the kids, the profit-sharing… and for whom the blank is still empty.

● As it turns out, this is one of the single-most debilitating approaches to life that one could embrace because the ‘blanks’ are always changing. In fact, when filling in the blank, it’s best to use pencil!

            I would venture to say that the way that we would answer that question is different today than (10) years ago. Why? Because of all the things that have previously occupied that space, but have proven unsatisfactory.

Life often makes you re-evaluate the blanks. Given enough time and a measure of honest self-reflection, we would likely not be as impulsive about filling in the blank.

Our lives display some type of pattern, whether we are conscious of it or not (whether intentional of incidental), which are consistent with that vision.

            For instance, if you boast about your (70-80) hour work weeks, you receive email stock quotes all day long and you’re trying to balance the mortgages on 4 different houses, that pattern--- that way of ordering your life, says something about you.

            On the other hand, if you sleep until noon, have no interest in securing gainful employment; the only significant relationships you have are with other “Metal of Honor Warriors” somewhere in cyber-space, you’ve

 sworn off personal hygiene and are living in your parents’ basement… that too says something about you.

It begs the questions…

            “What happens when we finally get everything our heart desires and we’re still not satisfied?”

            “What happens when you finally arrive… where do you go from there?”

Solomon is saying that when the blank involves something ‘created’, it results in perpetual frustration… ‘chasing the wind’.  Those things will never make it any deeper than your senses; they will never reach all the way to your soul.

            It is the image of children running around the yard chasing “blow-bubbles”: just when you finally grasp it, it bursts in your hand [‘chase’ (Heb)- longing; striving; from the root meaning, ‘to shepherd’: it’s like trying to round up the wind!] It’s a picture of frantic and purposeless activity: rounding up bubbles!

● Solomon used (2) phrases to describe our dilemma: “I find no pleasure…” and “everything is meaningless”.

We discover that the things that we once craved and that brought us pleasure—the places we used to go, the activities we loved, the relationships we had---now seem so empty, so fleeting. In fact, they are just burdensome.

● Isaiah would say it this way: “Hey there! All who are thirsty, come to the water! Are you penniless? Come anyway--- buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk. Buy without money--- everything’s free! Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton-candy?” (55:1-2) You need sustenance, but you’re mounging on heated-sugary-air-fibers!

I have found that, in life, when you’re “just looking”, you are most likely to be impulsive and simply open to suggestion.

                If you are bored, dissatisfied and have a bit of discretionary income… it’s the ‘perfect storm’.

            Suggestive selling targets those who aren’t sure what they want. At the check-out area: perhaps a lint roller or emergency stain removal packet, or a device for counting loose change, or a “Chia Pet”? Those opportunities remind you that no matter what else you are in line to purchase, you still need something else!

The more I absorb the story, the more I’m convinced of…

The fallacy of “balance”.

● Balance is about our attempts to ration out fragments of ourselves (our energies, our attention, our time) to relationships or activities and expect to be “whole”.

We’re convinced that the right proportions and combinations of work, play, family, God and country will allow us to finally achieve/experience life to the fullest.

But, those pursuits flow from the heart, not a chart! (lyrical skills) We have all, at one time or another, made our ‘priority charts’, offering them in some form of descending order (e.g. God, family, country, work, etc.)

I propose that hearts cannot be compartmentalized; that we don’t really give a ‘piece of heart’ to anyone or anything.

            We wrongly view our hearts as something that can be apportioned; divided and distributed accordingly.

James advises us that such pursuits result in what he calls “double-mindedness”… “two-souled”. The divided loyalties create somewhat of a dilemma for God. James says that the person who is double-minded is unstable and “should not expect to receive anything from God” (1:7); not that God is defiantly opposed to us, but because we’re not even sure what we want!

            How do we expect him to respond? To simply sign-off on our will or offer us his approach.

Life is not conducive to balance.

            It’s chaotic; it lacks stability; it’s demanding; it’s fatiguing. We tend to become over-extended, irritable, fatigued and disconnected.

● But, Jesus seemed to function in such a way that he was wonderfully centered; he was available, interruptible and although he always felt other’s pain, he never got caught up in their anxiety. He could enjoy a good dinner party with friends and could fall asleep about anywhere! He was so seized by the Father’s heart that he could say, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me” (John 4:34).

Jesus’ singular passion produced a life that was engaging and other-centered.

                He was fully present to God; fully present to his creation.

Mark 1:37-38 offers us some clues…

“Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. Later Simon and the others went out to find him. When they found him, they said, ‘Everyone is looking for you’. But Jesus replied, ‘We must go on to the other towns as well and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came’ [singular vision].”

He was always responsive to the needs of others, but somehow free of their demands because his activity was motivated by love, not guilt.

John 4:4 “Now he had to go through Samaria…”

            (Gr.)- ‘necessity brought on by the circumstances of others; necessity established by the will of God; necessary to achieve an end; ought’.

Luke 4:43 "I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose."

Luke 2:49 "Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?"

Luke 19:5 5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house."

Luke 24:7 …saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again."

In our lives, or in any given day, once we figure out what we “must” do, it will allow us to live in such a way that we are not governed by the unnecessary.

            If we are honest, most of our frantic activity is the result of “not knowing” what we must be doing; simply a means of avoiding how truly empty we feel.

● Discovering the “must” does (2) things: it constrains us (narrows life for us: 2 Cor.5:14… literally, a strait that forces a ship into a narrow channel), and it liberates us.

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

            (Gr.)- ‘to seize; to grasp; to possess’: used of Christ’s grace which has captured our hearts so that he might both inspire and provide a sense of order.

“What has seized you? What has taken hold of you? What possesses you?” As you live in response to the discovery of those reflections, you will find that life becomes less burdensome and more liberating.

The picture of life offered in the Scriptures seems far less

concerned with ‘balance’ than ours.

“…seek (require; demand) first (first importance) the Kingdom…” (Matthew 6:33)

“Love the Lord your God with all…” (Matthew 22:37-39)

“If anyone wants to be my follower, let him deny himself…” (Matthew10:34)

“Worship the Lord your God and serve him only…” (Matthew 4:10)

“No one can serve two masters…” (Matthew 6:24)

“If you aren’t with me, you are against me…” (Matt.12:30)

The issue is not that we live “under the sun”, but that we attempt to find meaning and fulfillment in life independent of God.

God’s determination is that we find life in him, but that life doesn’t dismiss things like money, power and sex as inherently evil (e.g. enjoy wealth, but don’t be ungrateful and stingy; enjoy food, just don’t be a glutton; enjoy your position of influence, but see it as expanded opportunities to serve others; enjoy sex, but have sex within the confines of a loving, committed, Godly marriage).

● The vanity is removed as we establish a sense of divine-order in our lives; order which does not dismiss such things as wealth and power and relationships, but prevents us from assuming that those things were ever meant to fulfill us.