Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That's what the Quester says.] There's nothing to anything—it's all smoke.
What's there to show for a lifetime of work,
a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone?
One generation goes its way, the next one arrives,
but nothing changes—it's business as usual for old planet earth.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down,
then does it again, and again—the same old round.
The wind blows south, the wind blows north.
Around and around and around it blows,
blowing this way, then that—the whirling, erratic wind.
All the rivers flow into the sea,
but the sea never fills up.
The rivers keep flowing to the same old place,
and then start all over and do it again.
Everything is boring, utterly boring—
no one can find any meaning in it.
Boring to the eye,
boring to the ear.
What was will be again,
what happened will happen again.
There's nothing new on this earth.
Year after year it's the same old thing.
Does someone call out, "Hey, this is new"?
Don't get excited—it's the same old story.
Nobody remembers what happened yesterday.
And the things that will happen tomorrow?
Nobody'll remember them either.
Don't count on being remembered.
What's there to show for a lifetime of work,
a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone?
One generation goes its way, the next one arrives,
but nothing changes—it's business as usual for old planet earth.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down,
then does it again, and again—the same old round.
The wind blows south, the wind blows north.
Around and around and around it blows,
blowing this way, then that—the whirling, erratic wind.
All the rivers flow into the sea,
but the sea never fills up.
The rivers keep flowing to the same old place,
and then start all over and do it again.
Everything is boring, utterly boring—
no one can find any meaning in it.
Boring to the eye,
boring to the ear.
What was will be again,
what happened will happen again.
There's nothing new on this earth.
Year after year it's the same old thing.
Does someone call out, "Hey, this is new"?
Don't get excited—it's the same old story.
Nobody remembers what happened yesterday.
And the things that will happen tomorrow?
Nobody'll remember them either.
Don't count on being remembered.
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 The Message
Now before anybody decides to quit reading, and starts calling me the Antichrist or anything like that because I'm using The Message, let me say something. I like the way it reads, and for this passage it is brilliantly interpreted. I got the same out of this version as i did my NIV, its just easier to read.
Tonight has been a weird night in general, today marked the 3rd week of my semester off, and i am still full time jobless. i don't think that i can live much longer on less than 100 dollars a week. these last three weeks have been some of the most miserable weeks of my life, i have been very heavily burdened by many different things, the main one being a feeling of worthlessness. i have felt like this time off has been meaningless. i have been sleeping until 12 or 1 on a daily basis and staying up until 3 and 4 on a nightly basis. and during the time i am awake i haven't gotten anything accomplished. i wake up, grab my computer, check my daily Internet dealings, wait until mama calls to decide if I'm going to even get out of bed yet. that decision all depends on whether or not she is coming home for lunch or if we are going to go eat somewhere. then depending on the day i shower and go to work or church. it is a very boring and meaningless life. and every day mixed in there i find time to sin and continue to sin. not because i want to, but because its habit, because the time I'm spending lying around is meaningless. i have become like a sloth.
but tonight was different, the spirit fell and conviction flowed over me. i could feel God's presence and he was standing next to me, telling me what he wants me to do, showing me what to read. i opened my bible and began to read out of Ecclesiastes 3, and began to feel conviction because it was talking about how there is a certain time for everything, and i could remember hearing and reading about now is the time for Christ to heal. so i decided that is what i wanted. healing from my slothful ways and healing from my heavy heart filled with disgust and the feeling of being meaningless. as i held my bible open and began to pray for conviction and forgiveness and began to Praise my God, i could feel the page of my bible flip. and so as to not lose my spot, i flipped back quickly to where i was at, but before i did, i noticed one word on the page. MEANINGLESS. its the exact feeling i was trying to remove from my body, so i began to read and God began to speak even more clearly.
as i read i could feel the wait lifting off of me, and for the first time in months, i was able to worship with a free heart and a clear mind. i read through the passage several times and my focus kept being drawn back to verses 7 and 8.
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. to the place the streams come from, they return again. all things are wearisome, more than one can say. the eye never has enough of seeing nor the ear of its hearing.
The Lord spoke power through these words to me, i realized in these words my sin cycle, and the sin cycle of man, it is our nature to sin. But our God is a gracious God and a loving God, so when we sin, he will always forgive us. The streams here are like our sin, they pour and pour into us, but no matter how much sin we have in us, we are never full, we are never satisfied, we always want more. since we want more, we are like the water in the ocean, returning back to the streams and rivers, only for that to run back into us. it is a never ending cycle, sin comes in, sin comes out, sin comes back in and sin goes back out. Constantly.
But we can slow down that cycle by taking in the living water as mentioned in john 4. by living with Christ in us, we have power over sin. because he came and died for us, and in doing that the enemy has been defeated, and death can't hold us down. (yes i just ripped that from a song, because we're gonna lift our hands in victory and shout our praises loud.... or something like that) As Christians we have the power to rebuke Satan and temptation from sin. and with the living water, with Jesus, we can be full, if we so choose to do so. with the living water, we will never thirst again.
So as i was trying to play all of these thoughts out in my head, i realized that my time as of right now has been meaningless, but it doesn't have to be. the Lord has really laid it on my heart, to wake up in the mornings and spend time with him, to write, to read, to be still (but awake) and look to him in the morning to lead me on an adventure that day. to make my days worth something.
Nobody remembers what happened yesterday.
And the things that will happen tomorrow?
Nobody'll remember them either.
Don't count on being remembered.
And the things that will happen tomorrow?
Nobody'll remember them either.
Don't count on being remembered.
Solomon was dealing with something serious when he was writing this, i believe it to be true though. if we are living a meaningless life, then we will not be remembered, if we are living a life outside of the will of God then we might as well not even exist. Nobody will remember us for the meaningless things we do. but somebody will remember us for the selfless things we do to help.
here's to a new beginning, here's to change. here's to a life of meaning.
*this was written in a stream of consciousness, if there are things in it that are theologically whack, please tell me. i don't want to spread false teachings or beliefs.
and yes i know i could expand on this passage more, and i plan on doing that in the future, there is much in the passage that can be used.
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