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A Christian
Thought for the Month - May 2014
Thoughts for believers & seekers
Thought for the Month -
“Is there another way?”
Eccles 1:2 ‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’
The book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament of the Bible is one of my favourite books. I agree that those opening words above don’t bode well, but it is the honesty of the book which always grabs me. Solomon wrote it, we believe, in the latter years of his life when he had allowed himself to drift away from God and became very jaded. The key words, if you try reading it, that crop up a number of times, are “under the sun” meaning on earth. It is an earthly perspective of life and God hardly gets mentioned - just like so much of modern life. Solomon has tried everything. “Been there and got the tee-shirt” really does apply. He’s, from an earthly standpoint at least, an incredibly successful man, but at the end of it he feels jaded and recognises that without God it is all meaningless. It’s a book that speaks so powerfully about modern life.
I’ve been pondering our country, our society, our culture if you like. Reading the papers and watching the news on TV can be a depressing thing and I note that columnists are becoming increasingly honest in facing what I can only describe as ‘a breakdown in our society’ where so much goes wrong: self-centred behaviour that cheats on expenses, twists evidence, is unfaithful in relationships, abuses those who are weaker and more vulnerable – and so much more. The sun may shine and after a good Spring we may wonder about a good Summer, but it doesn’t change what goes on around us, or even perhaps in our own lives.
A bit like Solomon I’ve been pondering modern life. Here are a few brushstrokes.
Life: meaning, purpose, career, competition, struggle, striving, wondering, hoping, failing.
Relationships: possibilities, hopes, dreams, uncertainty, difficulties, stresses, anger, spite, worries, unfaithfulness, abandoned, rejected, hurt, shamed, lonely.
Money: never enough, need for more, penny pinching, grabbing, spending, pleasure, success, experience, get more, dissatisfied, emptiness, meaning, purpose?
Career: hopes, ambitions, study, exams, hopes, ambitions, achievement, success, struggle, strive, competition, climbing, losing, hoping, dreaming, failing, wondering?
And then I’ve talked with some Christians. Listen to some testimonies.
Life: “I was full of ambition in my twenties but began to feel that I was just part of the famous rat race and it was all a bit pointless. Perhaps that was what got me searching. To cut a long story short I became a Christian and in surrendering my life to God, I came to realise He knew better than me about what was best for my life. As I look back over the last fifteen years I can see His hand on my life, guiding me and all I can say is that I feel incredibly at peace, contented with what I have and yet still full of purpose as I have been working on the things He put on my heart to achieve. It’s been really good. The future? It’s in His hands.”
Relationships: “I had bounced from relationship to relationship and just felt all the guys were using me. I wanted to be loved but there was no security to be found in any relationship. We were all as uncertain as one another. I became a Christian when I was twenty five and realised that these unstable attempts at relationship had to become a thing of the past. I remember saying, “God, I’m going to leave this to you. If you’ve got a man for me, please send him but until you do, I’m not getting close to anyone; I’m too fed up with getting hurt.” Life was good for eighteen months and then John came along - and it got better! We both had a similar background and were both very wary of getting in deep, We decided to do it the God-way and physically we held back. Six months later it seemed we were getting all the green lights from God and so we got married. I almost feel guilty about how good it’s been. That was thirty five years ago. We now have three grown up children and five grandchildren and life is really good. Yes, we went through difficult times, in the early months of our marriage, settling down to living with each other and accommodating each other. It was tough when we had our first son and John’s job was being difficult. Later on there was the time when I had a cancer scare and that was difficult for a while, but all the time we prayed together and God was there for us. I don’t know how we would have coped without Him, but He was there and it’s been good.”
Money: “Chris and I became Christians about the same time so it’s been a growing adventure together. One of the areas we wanted to grow in was in handling our finances. Neither of us had been particularly careful with our money before we became Christians and so we went and spoke with the pastor of our church and he put us in touch with one of the counsellors in the church who handled that sort of thing. With him we decided we would clear our debts carefully and then not spend what we didn’t have. That’s been a principle we’ve stuck to and it;’s meant we have been free of worry. We’ve probably got all the usual things people have in a Western society but we only bought when we had the money. We also decided that if money wasn’t to be the be-all-and-end-all of life, we wanted to be givers and so every month we decided we would take a tenth of our net income and give it away. We give some to the church and we purposely give some to charities, but we also keep our eyes open for needs around us and we just give to help others out when that is appropriate. Do we get by? You’ve got to be joking? We’ve never been in the red. Yes, we pray about what we do with our money all the time, and God seems to give us wisdom to know what to do with it. It’s been good.”
Well, we’re running out of space so I won’t tell you about several people I could call on to share about how God has guided them in their careers, but they are there, doing good stuff and feeling good in it. I feel sad when people speak of Christianity as ‘a religion’; it’s a life, with God, and it’s good, and it’s there for anyone.
Eccles 1:2 ‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’
The book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament of the Bible is one of my favourite books. I agree that those opening words above don’t bode well, but it is the honesty of the book which always grabs me. Solomon wrote it, we believe, in the latter years of his life when he had allowed himself to drift away from God and became very jaded. The key words, if you try reading it, that crop up a number of times, are “under the sun” meaning on earth. It is an earthly perspective of life and God hardly gets mentioned -
I’ve been pondering our country, our society, our culture if you like. Reading the papers and watching the news on TV can be a depressing thing and I note that columnists are becoming increasingly honest in facing what I can only describe as ‘a breakdown in our society’ where so much goes wrong: self-
A bit like Solomon I’ve been pondering modern life. Here are a few brushstrokes.
Life: meaning, purpose, career, competition, struggle, striving, wondering, hoping, failing.
Relationships: possibilities, hopes, dreams, uncertainty, difficulties, stresses, anger, spite, worries, unfaithfulness, abandoned, rejected, hurt, shamed, lonely.
Money: never enough, need for more, penny pinching, grabbing, spending, pleasure, success, experience, get more, dissatisfied, emptiness, meaning, purpose?
Career: hopes, ambitions, study, exams, hopes, ambitions, achievement, success, struggle, strive, competition, climbing, losing, hoping, dreaming, failing, wondering?
And then I’ve talked with some Christians. Listen to some testimonies.
Life: “I was full of ambition in my twenties but began to feel that I was just part of the famous rat race and it was all a bit pointless. Perhaps that was what got me searching. To cut a long story short I became a Christian and in surrendering my life to God, I came to realise He knew better than me about what was best for my life. As I look back over the last fifteen years I can see His hand on my life, guiding me and all I can say is that I feel incredibly at peace, contented with what I have and yet still full of purpose as I have been working on the things He put on my heart to achieve. It’s been really good. The future? It’s in His hands.”
Relationships: “I had bounced from relationship to relationship and just felt all the guys were using me. I wanted to be loved but there was no security to be found in any relationship. We were all as uncertain as one another. I became a Christian when I was twenty five and realised that these unstable attempts at relationship had to become a thing of the past. I remember saying, “God, I’m going to leave this to you. If you’ve got a man for me, please send him but until you do, I’m not getting close to anyone; I’m too fed up with getting hurt.” Life was good for eighteen months and then John came along -
Money: “Chris and I became Christians about the same time so it’s been a growing adventure together. One of the areas we wanted to grow in was in handling our finances. Neither of us had been particularly careful with our money before we became Christians and so we went and spoke with the pastor of our church and he put us in touch with one of the counsellors in the church who handled that sort of thing. With him we decided we would clear our debts carefully and then not spend what we didn’t have. That’s been a principle we’ve stuck to and it;’s meant we have been free of worry. We’ve probably got all the usual things people have in a Western society but we only bought when we had the money. We also decided that if money wasn’t to be the be-
Well, we’re running out of space so I won’t tell you about several people I could call on to share about how God has guided them in their careers, but they are there, doing good stuff and feeling good in it. I feel sad when people speak of Christianity as ‘a religion’; it’s a life, with God, and it’s good, and it’s there for anyone.