Life is Meaningless

Imagine you had everything your heart desired. Imagine you could do everything you’ve ever dreamed of doing. Imagine you had more money than you knew what to do with and not a single responsibility or obligation of which to attend. Simply put, imagine your life is perfect…or is it? These thoughts must raise another question inside you. They must provoke you to wonder what your life would really be like if you could live like this. Would it really be bliss 24/7? Or is there more to life than just having fun and buying things?

Some people think that if they could just escape their jobs, buy this new thing or that new car, replace their terrible kid with the neighbor’s well-behaved one, improve their spouse’s personality defects, and get that perfect body they’ve always dreamed of, their life would be perfect. I know you’ve thought these things before, but of course, you’d never admit to it. You want to have the perfect life, but at the same time, want everyone to think your life is already perfect. So while you’re striving to get that promotion, working late, and neglecting your friends or family because you believe it will make the difference in your happiness, you fail to see the reality of your efforts: IT IS MEANINGLESS.

Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”

Why is it meaningless you might ask? A better job means more money, which means more stuff, and more stuff means you can give more to the church and help more people, right? That can’t be meaningless, can it? Well, if your attitude is truly one that is seeking gain in order to give back, that’s one thing. Usually, however, it doesn’t work that way. Most people seek gain because they want more stuff and justify their selfish desires by telling themselves they’ll be able to help more people, too. The reality is that those who don’t give out of what they have now won’t give out of what they have next week or next year. (Okay, back to the point…)

Solomon goes on to call wisdom meaningless, toil and work meaningless, fame and fortune meaningless, and advancement meaningless. For a man who was the wisest to live up to his day, negativity truly permeated his writing. But don’t think that was the purpose or intention of his writing. Let’s look at the glimpses of hope Solomon gives throughout the book of Ecclesiastes.

Life Isn’t Totally Meaningless…

(Side note) Whenever you’re feeling depressed by the condition of your life or saddened by the circumstances around you which may or may not be out of your control and you turn to the Word of God in those times, be sure you don’t open to Ecclesiastes.

Having just finished looking at the meaninglessness of life as written by Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, we’re moving towards the glimpses of hope that are given throughout the book. Now that I think about it, “throughout” may have been an exaggeration. Regardless of how often, hope is found in the book; it’s just hard to find. Let’s look at Solomon’s messages of hope that he so sparingly hid inside his writing.

(In order to keep this relatively short, here is a good list of all the hopeful statements: Eccl 2:24-25, 3:12-14, 5:1-7, 5:18-20, 8:15, 9:7-10)

As we come to the end of the book, we are confronted with the final verses, hoping they will bring a happy ending to this wearisome book. Let’s focus on the concluding two verses found in chapter 12 verses 13 and 14:

Solomon writes in verse 13, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter.” After having all of the strength drained from your body as you pushed and endured through the twelve long chapters during which only slight glimmers of hope shone through the repetitive echoes of “meaningless, meaningless,” you finally reach the point where it will all make sense—hopefully. So what does Solomon write to conclude this depressing dissertation? “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” The Wisdom of Solomon can not be matched by anyone this generation or any generation has ever known (except Jesus). So for him to search so extensively for something of meaning and sum it all up in 14 words means you should stop what you’re doing and pay attention. I mean it. Stop and pay attention!

Fear God! Keep his commandments! This is the whole duty of man. Don’t you get it? Nothing in this world has meaning without a life devoted to God. Anything you do, anywhere you go, anything you buy, anyone you seek to have a relationship with—all of it will end up as a meaningless waste of time without God guiding it, leading it, and holding it each step of the way. Until you realize the full extent to which God should be and needs to be involved in your life, you are living a meaningless existence. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to the man whom God blessed with so much wisdom people still refer to him as, “The wisest man to ever live” (1 Kings 3:12).

The only meaningless days in life are the ones without God. Now it’s your job to make sure he has the lead role in each and every one.

You’re too busy for God? Me, too!

Is your calendar so full that you can’t even find time to do the basics like cook dinner and do the laundry? Yeah, mine is too. Do you have so many obligations at work that you bring some of them home to do while your family is sleeping? Yeah, I do that, too. Are you so concerned about making everyone happy that you forgo the simple pleasures in life so that your friends and family can have more of your attention? Yeah, I’ve done that, too. Do you ever find yourself so tired at night that you can’t even keep your eyes open long enough to give God just a few minutes of your day? Yeah, I have too.

What is the answer to the problem of busyness in the world today? How do we eliminate the things that don’t matter from our schedule and begin to focus our priorities on the important things? If that question were easy to answer, I don’t think any of the problems mentioned above would have applied to you, but I have a suspicion that most, if not all, of them did.

Here’s a perspective that might help. I like to go to these passages when I find that my schedule is too crazy and my life is slowly spiraling out of control. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? …But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:25-27, 33-34)

If you really take this passage to heart and listen to its message, you will find a very important lesson about the busyness by which you are constantly afflicted. Much of the busyness that we endure is because we try to take control of many things that God has promised to provide. When we take those things into our own hands, we not only increase our workload, but we increase our stress level which causes us to worry. The more full your calendar gets, the more you worry, right? Well, here’s the point: The more you trust and rely on God to provide the basics in life, the more time you’ll have to devote to the things that really need your attention, like playing with your kids, spending time with your wife, and reading the Word. Let tomorrow worry about itself, and focus on what you can get done today. Remember, tomorrow has enough trouble of its own.

Did you read the label?

Job 28:28, “And he said to man, ‘The fear of the Lord-that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”

I really love how food is labeled. It just makes it so easy to figure out what is in something. Is this high in fat? Is it high in sugar or carbohydrates? Maybe you don’t read the labels on things, but you really should. I never used to think twice about what I ate. Three Big-Macs here and a day later a large pizza from Pizza-Hut, that is how I used to eat. However, now I’ve been working out for over 18 months straight. (I used to work out a lot in college and stopped when I injured my back.) While some days it’s difficult to wake up earlier than I have to and down these weird tasting protein shakes, the feeling of taking care of my body is totally worth it, not to mention the physical improvements.

So I was about a year into my weight training program when I realized something wasn’t right. I had a plan that was called “Max-OT” from www.ast-ss.com (I still use it today-great plan); I had the weights; I had the dedication; I had the time, but something was missing. Well, actually too much wasn’t missing. What I mean is that I was working out and even taking weight training supplements, but the results just weren’t there. Finally, I realized what I had to do. I had to start reading the labels. No more Coke, that was first to go. Then went the infamous French Fries. Do you know how hard it is to order at a Fast Food Restaurant and not get French Fries or Coke? They make it so easy with the whole “Would you like to try a combo?” Yeah, it was a little difficult at first, but now I’m getting the hang of it. That all started back in April. Now it’s December and I’ve only eaten three servings of French Fries in the past 7 months.

When I started changing my diet and actually watching what I was eating, the results of my hard labor with the weights finally started showing through. In the first six weeks, my waist size went down two inches! It was a great feeling to actually fit into my pants again. (And for those of you who know me, you’d never in a million years think that was a problem.) So what am I trying to say here?

If you don’t read the labels of the things you put into your body, all of your hard work of reading your Bible and praying and fasting and any other spiritual discipline you do will be nullified. The benefits and blessings you could see will be minimized because of the choices you make each day. You may feel like the worship on Sunday morning really connected you with God, but why doesn’t that feeling last longer than just a couple of hours? How much spiritual endurance have you built up?

When you’re talking about training spiritually, it is such an amazing parallel to training physically. Look at these truths that I can personally say from experience: These really work!

1. If you’re going to grow physically, you have to push your body beyond your normal limits.
Spiritually, if you’re going to mature, you have to push yourself beyond your normal spiritual challenges. That means you can’t continue on reading your “One-Year Bible” every year and think you’re going to grow spiritually. Technically, in the sports world, it’s called “muscle memory.” That’s when your muscles stop responding to training because you’ve done the same thing over and over. It happens with the spiritual muscles, too. So don’t over train with one thing. Keep mixing it up and pushing yourself to higher levels.

2. If you want to see results, you have to measure progress.
Spiritually, if you want to see results, you have to be able to see a difference in where you were when you started and where you are now. That means you’re going to need to keep a journal. Write down what you spend your time doing and how you feel your relationship with God is going. As you continue to train spiritually, keep writing down your feelings and life-style choices. What are the friends like that you hang out with? What do you talk about? What kinds of movies do you go see? As you develop into a more spiritually fit person, you should see changes in all of these areas towards the likeness of Christ.

3. Don’t miss a scheduled day and always give yourself a day off.
Spiritually, set your goals for which days are going to be “growth” days (ex:M-F) and which days will be “rest” days (ex:Sat-Sun). Don’t miss any of your “growth” days. Have the determination to meet your goals each “growth day.” That means if your training days are Monday-Friday, make sure you complete your spiritual workout each of those days. Don’t get lazy. On your “off days,” you should still intake some spiritual food, but these days shouldn’t be as demanding. If you never give yourself an “off day,” you’re more likely to quit your program. So be sure to take that Sabbath day of rest.

4. Limit the amount of “bad food” you intake. Increase the amount of “good food” you intake.
Spiritually, you need to have steady involvement with people who encourage you spiritually and motivate you to live the Christ-life. These people and situations are “good food.” Some good food for me is the movie “Facing the Giants.” When you eat real good food, you feel better about yourself physically. Same is true spiritually. When you eat “bad food,” you’re not doing yourself any favors. The more “bad food” you intake, the less you’ll benefit from your spiritual training throughout the week. This “bad food” can be anything from the radio station you listen to, the tv shows you watch, the movies you see, the friends you spend time with, the websites you visit, or the books you read. Everything you put into your mind/heart is either “good food” or “bad food.” When it’s “bad food,” you’re wasting precious spiritual calories on junk.

Mark 7:21-23: “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ “

Spiritually you have to read the label and see what is in something before you dive head first into the bag. If it’s a movie, you have to ask yourself, “Is this amount of “FAT” going to impact my spiritual training in a negative way?” (FAT being nudity, language, violence, etc.) Every type of media or situation you intake/experience will have different levels of “FAT.” Some will be like eating a dozen Krispy Kreme Donuts, while others will be like eating a travel size Snickers bar. The greater the level of “FAT,” the greater the negative impact on your spiritual training.

One more thing, if you’re not working out spiritually at all and taking in a large amount of “FAT” from the world, you’re going to end up a spiritually obese person. That’s what Satan wants. God wants us to be spiritually healthy. Satan wants us to have a spiritual heart attack.

I could continue this great analogy forever, but that’s good for now. Oh, the verse from Job at the beginning relates because the point of what I’m saying is “The fear of the Lord-that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”

Vanilla Christianity and You

Are you a Vanilla Christian? If you don’t know, let me ask you a couple of questions. Does your family ever sit down and read the Bible together? Do you and your spouse ever sit down and read the Bible together? Do you ever pray for more than things you want or changes that will make you happy? Have you ever gone out of your way to pick up food for a homeless person, turn around and go back to give it to them? Has it ever occurred to you that for less than what your family spends on one restaurant meal per month you could feed, clothe, and send to school a kid in a foreign country? Have you ever fasted? Don’t know what that is? Can you identify the four gospels in the New Testament? How about quote any scripture besides John 3:16 and tell where it’s found? Do you go to church more than once a week and think that by doing so you’re increasing your chances of getting into heaven? Is the only time you spend with God during the week at church? Have you ever brought someone to church who didn’t know Jesus? How much do you give to the church each year? Is it 10% or whatever you feel like at the time? So I’ve got to ask you one question, are you a Vanilla Christian?

My thoughts on spirituality

I am just another guy looking to make a difference in the world. Can you blame me? I am a youth minister working in Tennessee teaching teens what it means to give your life to Christ. I am going to use this space to communicate my thoughts on what spirituality is, what it should be, and what people are trying to make it. Yeah, it sounds fun. ? Nevertheless, even if a single soul never reads this, I am putting it out there to see what happens. Maybe this will inspire someone to live their life more like Christ intended…and maybe this will be like the millions of other blogs on the internet…ignored.