Ecclesiastes...Pastor Phil Strong
Part 7
3-13-11
Text: (selected) 3:14, 6:10, 7:13, 8:17, 9:1, 10:14, 11:5
I said last week that…
~ The story of God offers no way for humanity to approach God which does
not involve submission (‘voluntarily cooperate with the will of
another’);
that God has nothing to offer
those who think they can do life without him (James 4:6).
~ Surrender is not simply “indecisiveness”; in fact, it’s the
toughest decision we will ever make.
It’s not passivity, it’s not just “letting life happen to you”; it’s not
about succumbing to life or resignation,
but it is about taking responsibility for who you are becoming---
which starts with an honest image of who you are now, who God is and a
vision of a preferred-future for your life.
It is the critical first response of repentance.
Sometimes we don’t find what will restore us--- will address the
eternity in our hearts, until we have expended ourselves on all that
cannot.
“… she had suffered a
great deal… spent all that she had… and instead of things getting
better, they only got worse. When she heard about Jesus, she thought…”
(Mark 5:25-26)
We would have a tendency to say, at this point,
“Well, she really didn’t have any
other but God.” But, she does. She can continue to hold stubbornly
to her own self-directed life. She can continue to expend herself and
her resources in ways that continue to frustrate and exhaust her. She
can refuse to “think differently” (repent).
Surrender is not just about losing the will to live, it’s about finding
life in someone else.
“When she heard about Jesus, she thought…”
Doesn’t it almost seem that the first step toward restoration is one of
re-imagining our life with God? Not some mental-gymnastics or
psychological “happy place”, but seeing our life for who we could become
if we were willing to surrender?
● The willingness of
the story-tellers (that’s the way the Bible comes to us--- as narrative,
not as a collection of facts or evidences)
to write so candidly means that
they
are
not willing to just
accept things the way they are.
They are
disturbed about what
they see and experience
and
are
looking
for meaning. They want to know, “Why?”
Senseless tragedy, unspeakable violence, crippling and oppressive
injustices, disturbing images of “natural” disasters, news of
revolutions which merely compound the chaos (e.g. Libya)…
Sometimes belief in God “temporarily” complicates matters.
I often presume that life is easier for atheists.
If you look to the left and you find there is
“no God”, I suppose it
essentially dismisses all of the frustration with the “whys”.
Just deal with it; stop your
whining! But, there’s just too much that it does not explain (e.g.
all of the beauty and goodness; all of the really compassion and loving
ways that I see people responding).
If you look to the right, and there you see God, and you see him
standing knee-deep in the human situation, you’re left to wonder if he
is “kindly”, but “helpless”.
This
would work out great for God, because he could simply say,
“Don’t look at me. It’s not my
fault!”
“Fantasy” and “denial” are (2) unacceptable biblical responses to life.
Either pretending that life is actually not as complicated and
frustrating as it appears (fantasy) or simply choosing to look the other
way when it happens; to refuse to believe that things are really that
bad.
●
As I was listening to reports of concerning the earthquake and tsunami
in Japan, the commentator stated that even with all of the advanced
technology and early warning systems in place, sometimes the people had
as little as (15) minutes to respond.
He also stated that not only did people have the technological
warnings, but also the natural warning signs which they were able to
recognize for themselves. Evidences that something was wrong.
●
If people were to respond appropriately, he said, they needed to
“respond with their feet”.
Meaning, they had to recognize the gravity of their situation and
respond accordingly.
Surrender is “responding
with our feet”.
●
In this life, there are a lot of seemingly senseless, random and painful
experiences and a
great deal of purposeful, beautiful, and pleasurable ones.
● Remember, Solomon is offering reality to us in contrasting pairs, the
first of which seems to provide the basis for all of the others.
“A time to be born and a time to
die” (vs.2)
LIFE “UNDER-THE-SUN”
birth
death
l----------------------------------------------------------l
For our purpose, we have called it,
“Time”
and “Time’s up”!
Along this continuum, we would categorize these life-experiences as
either “good” or “bad”; “painful” or “pleasurable”. Solomon seems to be
suggesting that sometimes we’re just too close; sometimes it’s too soon
to tell! Sometimes close is not the best vantage point (e.g.
“You know, you can see that
better from back here.”)
●
Sometimes we are not able to judge whether or not something is “good”
until we realize the effect that it has upon us.
In the context of life “under-the-sun”, we dare to say…
There is a God (and you’re not him), God is great and God is
good, God is powerful, and life is hard.