Life is hard...and then you die.

When I was in grad school at ACU I was given the assignment of writing a treatise on the theology of the book of Ecclesiastes. The title of this blog is the title I gave that paper. I love reading that book. The author seems to have such a fresh, clear perspective on life. I have known some over the years who say Ecclesiastes is negative and depressing. I heartily disagree. I think it is written by a realist who is trying his best to offer his experience to any who will listen in order to help them not have to learn the hard way as he did. This book is filled with brilliance.

In some ways. life today seems harder than it used to be. My teens are all running in circles for so many reasons. School has them running ragged and competing for top grades unlike I remember in years past. It certainly wasn't this competitive when I was in high school. All the extra-curricular activities from dance to sports to cheer to band and choir demand so much more from these kids. Almost every sport has become year round with off season training and practice. School performances have become major productions, requiring months of preparation and commitment. It is all so much work! As the writer of old would say - it feels like chasing after the wind.

In the end, I find myself having to scream more loudly in ways that were never before necessary to be heard above the din of activity in my students' lives. I have to plead for them to give some time to youth group or a retreat or a Bible study or just an afternoon to hang out for coffee or a coke and just talk. In the end, how many of them give away their adolescence days to football or dance or any number of time-robbing activities in which they will never "go pro." For what?...a letter to put on a jacket?....the possibility of a college scholarship so they can give up their college experience to another tyrannical schedule with coaches and games and more need for high performance?

I ache for so many of my teens. I ache for my own kids when the race seems to grab them by the soul and make them feel inadequate if they take time to relax, or play or just enjoy an afternoon doing nothing more than just being!

Oh yes, I definitely relate to the writer of Ecclesiastes. This all seems meaningless and chasing after the wind. In the end he gives a great short-hand to the life lived by perspective. Listen to these words from Ecclesiastes chapter 12:
Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
"I find no pleasure in them"

It seems those days come earlier than they used to. He ends by reminding us that the best we can do with our days is to fear God and keep his commandments In the end nothing else matters.

Adding my two cents, take some in the next few days to do nothing and take someone else with you. It just might be the most productive thing you do all week!

Whose side are you on?

In Joshua chapter 5, Joshua stands on the eve before the battle of Jericho. He is ready to lead the people of God in conquest of the mighty, fortified city. He has seen the power of the Lord through the ten plagues of Egypt. He has seen the riches of the land of Canaan as one of the twelve spies sent by Moses some 40 years earlier to survey the land God was giving them. He has seen the providence of God wandering through the wilderness with a people whose allegiance to God had been fickle at best.

Now he stood, at last, ready to begin taking the land God had promised to them so long ago. He was the new leader of the nation, having received that mantle from Moses. He had been faithful and was certain that God would give them victory. Looking up he sees a man standing nearby, dressed in full armor with his sword in his hand. Approaching him, Joshua asks, "Are you for us or our enemies?" "Neither," the man replies, " I am the commander of the Army of the Lord."

If I were Joshua , I might have jumped out in protest at that point. "What do you mean, 'Neither'? Do you realize who I am. I am Joshua , the faithful one. The one who has taken the lead of Israel after Moses. I am the one who has been victorious in battle again and again under God's lead. Way back when we first spied out this land, I was one of only two men who trusted God and believed we could take this land in the first place. How can you stand there and say you command the Lord's Army, but you are not on my side? Now I 'll ask you again, whose side are you on, anyway?"

That might have been my response, but it certainly was not Joshua's. Look in the text and you'll see that he fell down on his face before this"man" and cried out something like, "What would my Lord have his servant do?" You see Joshua understood, perhaps better than anyone, the truth that the battle belongs to the Lord. He understood what the psalmist penned years later: Had it not been the Lord who was on our side. . . when men attacked us. . .they would have swallowed us alive - Psalm 124

Joshua heard and understood, that this man wasn't saying "I m not for you." Instead he was saying, "'Whose side are you on?' is a good question, Joshua. It is the right question, but it is not a question you ask of God. Instead, it is THE question God asks of you. So, Joshua, whose side are you on?"

This is the same question God asks of everyone in scripture: "Whose side are you on?" The Word is packed full of life stories which grapple with this question. Undoubtedly and undeniably, those who line up with God always win. Even in the face of great opposition. Even in the face of terrible suffering and confusion. Even in the face of their own death. I dare you to find a life story in the Bible where the plot does not turn on how the lead character (and all those around him or her) answers this question. They all rise and fall, succeed or fail according to whether they line up with God.

Why do we think that our lives would be any different? Don't take this question lightly. Whose side are you on?