Passage Read: Ecclesiastes 11 - Song of Solomon 2
Meditation Verse: Ecclesiastes 11:8
Thought
"Everything that is to come will be futility." Oppression, prosperity, justice, injustice, world war, world peace, everything that is to come will be futility. None of it will last and none of it can I control. I can get caught up in it or I can mind my own business. I can be upset and angry and fight in whatever way I find, or I can leave it to God and find whatever joy there is to be had at hand. There will be many days of darkness ahead: I can let that shake me; I can be filled with fear and trepidation and anxiety. Or I can recognize that the days of darkness are as meaningless as the days of light. None last, and neither must define my state of mind or present existence. But if I dwell on the days of darkness, I will be filled with grief and stress and anxiety, so better to find joy and enjoy whatever the days are that I live in, whether rich or poor, settled or unsettled, smooth or rough. It is easy to find trouble, but the trouble is meaningless. Better to find enjoyment, for that too is meaningless, but much better for my mental health.
Application
Solomon has a point here. I need to disengage my sense of security and peace from my circumstances and from the world's circumstances. But the result seems callous, heartless and self-absorbed. How can I care about others but not be overwhelmed by grief over the horrible state of the world and the suffering of my neighbors? A Christian needs to love his neighbor as himself. But I can't control my neighbor and make him change his perspective or make him choose better things. I can't fix my neighbor's circumstances any better than I can change world affairs. To invest myself in trying is an exercise in futility and frustration. I'll only get angry. So I have to remember my Creator in all my days and in all my circumstances and in all the circumstances of those around me, near and far. I'm not God, but He is. He can change things and people. And He's working out all things, big and little, for the good of those who love Him. So I need to encourage my neighbor to remember Him too, and to seek to love and honor Him, so that they can find peace in Christ rather than in their circumstances or in merely finding whatever happiness they can in or despite their circumstances. If they will not turn to God and trust and follow Him, then anything they do and anything I do to help them will be eternally meaningless. I must not wrap my joy and peace around my ability to help others find peace and joy. I'm not responsible for their choices and what befalls them; I'm only responsible for testifying about Jesus and His wisdom. My peace and joy need to be wrapped up in my own trust in Jesus and obedience to Him. He brings real peace, beyond even what Solomon offered, peace to trust in what my Creator is doing in the world and in my neighbor's life, and not to take more on myself than what He has entrusted to me to do.