Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Eureka!
I was taking a shower this morning when it suddenly hit me! I finally finished reading Ecclesiastes last night, but I was totally baffled by the books until inspiration hit me this morning. It's probably not the "right" meaning, but I think the important thing is that it give Ecclesiastes meaning to me.
I wrote before that I found the book kind of depressing in how it states that life is meaningless, and I honestly thought that by the end of the book I would find something to give life meaning, but I didn't. So it occured to me today that maybe I shouldn't be depressed by the fact that life is meaningless. I mean, isn't that something we as Christians profess to believe anyway? Sure we don't put it so bluntly, but all those verse about storing treasures in heaven, setting your mind on things above and not on earthly things, &etc., don't they all suggest that earthly life is inconsequential?
Then what does it mean when I find the thought that life is meaningless depressing? It means that I haven't been focused on eternity and heaven, but on now and things on earth! A business-like metaphor that popped into my head this morning kind of explains what I mean. Let's say there are two different major companies you can choose to invest in: Heaven or Earth. If I put all of my life savings into the Heaven company, how am I going to feel when I learn that the Earth company has gone bankrupt and folded? Maybe sad if I couldn't convince my friends or family to not invest in Earth, but I'm definitely not going to feel very personally affected by the news. On the other hand, if I threw everything, or a significant portion of my savings into Earth, when I'm told that the stock certificates are meaningless, worthless, I'm going to feel crushed.
After thinking through all this, the thought that life is meaningless isn't so much depressing as relieving. Yeah, lots of stuff goes wrong and bad thing happen in this earthly life, but ultimately it's our eternal life with God in heaven that matters, so if I can keep my focus on that, life's disappointments take on an entirely different perspective.
This newfound understanding of mine also explains why "the conclusion of the matter" talks about making sure that you live righteously, because we will all be judged in the end. See, if we accept that life really is meaningless, then it'd be easy to think that it it follows that it doesn't matter how we live our lives. But that warning in the conclusion reminds us that even though how we live our lives won't, say, stop us from dying like everyone else, there are still consequences apart from those we reap in this meaningless life.
(sidenote) Wow. It's amazing how much insight comes to me in the shower. I think all of my theses for essays so far this year have been formulated either in the shower or right after coming out of the shower! That being the case, it's probably a good thing that I take morning showers, because if I had inspiration strike at night, before I was planning on going to sleep, I would probably forgo sleep to work out my ideas! =Þ
I was taking a shower this morning when it suddenly hit me! I finally finished reading Ecclesiastes last night, but I was totally baffled by the books until inspiration hit me this morning. It's probably not the "right" meaning, but I think the important thing is that it give Ecclesiastes meaning to me.
I wrote before that I found the book kind of depressing in how it states that life is meaningless, and I honestly thought that by the end of the book I would find something to give life meaning, but I didn't. So it occured to me today that maybe I shouldn't be depressed by the fact that life is meaningless. I mean, isn't that something we as Christians profess to believe anyway? Sure we don't put it so bluntly, but all those verse about storing treasures in heaven, setting your mind on things above and not on earthly things, &etc., don't they all suggest that earthly life is inconsequential?
Then what does it mean when I find the thought that life is meaningless depressing? It means that I haven't been focused on eternity and heaven, but on now and things on earth! A business-like metaphor that popped into my head this morning kind of explains what I mean. Let's say there are two different major companies you can choose to invest in: Heaven or Earth. If I put all of my life savings into the Heaven company, how am I going to feel when I learn that the Earth company has gone bankrupt and folded? Maybe sad if I couldn't convince my friends or family to not invest in Earth, but I'm definitely not going to feel very personally affected by the news. On the other hand, if I threw everything, or a significant portion of my savings into Earth, when I'm told that the stock certificates are meaningless, worthless, I'm going to feel crushed.
After thinking through all this, the thought that life is meaningless isn't so much depressing as relieving. Yeah, lots of stuff goes wrong and bad thing happen in this earthly life, but ultimately it's our eternal life with God in heaven that matters, so if I can keep my focus on that, life's disappointments take on an entirely different perspective.
This newfound understanding of mine also explains why "the conclusion of the matter" talks about making sure that you live righteously, because we will all be judged in the end. See, if we accept that life really is meaningless, then it'd be easy to think that it it follows that it doesn't matter how we live our lives. But that warning in the conclusion reminds us that even though how we live our lives won't, say, stop us from dying like everyone else, there are still consequences apart from those we reap in this meaningless life.
(sidenote) Wow. It's amazing how much insight comes to me in the shower. I think all of my theses for essays so far this year have been formulated either in the shower or right after coming out of the shower! That being the case, it's probably a good thing that I take morning showers, because if I had inspiration strike at night, before I was planning on going to sleep, I would probably forgo sleep to work out my ideas! =Þ
