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I, the Teacher,
was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to search for
understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done in the world. I
soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race.
Everything under the sun is meaningless, like chasing the wind. What is wrong
cannot be righted. What is missing cannot be recovered. I said to myself,
"Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I
have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them." So I worked hard to
distinguish wisdom from foolishness. But now I realize that even this was like
chasing the wind. For the greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase
knowledge only increases sorrow. (Ecclesiastes 1:12-18 NLV). A dog and bubbles make a very amusing
combination. I have seen the hilarious dance created when a bottle of bubbles
and a dog are put together. You may have seen the same thing.
The bubbles are blown and as they drift on the breeze, the dog will run
after them only to be disappointed when they burst before their eyes.
They never seem to tire of chasing them though. How like many people this
scene is as they chase after happiness in all the wrong things. Our
reading today comes from a man who chased plenty of them. King Solomon, the
ancient Jewish King, said this, "I have seen all the things that are done
under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind." We
might say the bubbles. Solomon probably lived life with more gusto than anybody
you ever knew did. He was the richest man of his time. He built an incredible
temple with his name on it. Roads and buildings everywhere that he was
responsible for. He had the best of entertainment. He had more women than you
could possibly imagine, and he studied the greatest ideas of his time, and
repeatedly he would say in this book, "It was all chasing after the
wind". Chasing bubbles, maybe you know the feeling. You see something or
someone that looks promising as a goal and it would give you personal happiness
or personal fulfillment, right? And you pounce on it with everything you got,
and, puff, its gone. It leaves you sniffing and wondering why you're still empty
looking for the next bubble to come along. How long is it going to be before we
realize that what we really want isn't any of life's bubbles, any of the things
that earth has to offer? In
Ecclesiastes 3:11, Solomon reached the conclusion. He said, "God has placed
eternity in our hearts". There is an eternal hole in our heart. It's so big
only someone as eternal as God can fill it. We've been trying to get earth stuff
and earth people to fill a God hole in our heart. We're hungry for something
eternal. Right now you might be aggressively pursuing a position or a possession
or a person with everything you've got. But when you get it, you will discover
what you always discover -- it's a bubble that bursts. That is why Solomon
concludes after his life search in Ecclesiastes 12:1, "Remember your
Creator in the days of your youth". There's only one pursuit worth
everything you got - a personal relationship with your Creator. Life lived for
what matters to Him. The Bible says, speaking of Jesus Christ, "He is our
peace". How soon are you going to give up chasing the wind? The bubbles?
Looking for love and peace in life in things that disappear as soon as you got
them? Trust in Jesus today! |
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