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25th August 2024
SundayReflection
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Dr. Joel Dorman
Life Meets Theology
The collision of life and faith
Ecclesiastes 3:12-22
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"Before you know it, it will be next Christmas"
This was spoken to me in January.
And it's hard to believe fall is just around the corner and, in fact, Christmas will be here before we know it.
The point of this sage comment was how time accelerates as you get older.
It makes sense when you think about it:
when we're little children, a year is one-fifth of our lives (when we're five).
But this person was sixty: that means a year is one-sixtieth of his life.
Those "years" are a lot shorter than when we're five.
In some ways, this passage of time is frustrating: it just moves too fast and gets faster and faster and faster.
In other ways, this quickening passage of time offers solitude:
it's all going to move on no matter what happens.
The difference between these two perspectives is how you handle human existence and the point of all this so-called "life".
Ecclesiastes 3:12-22.
Solomon has finished talking about a time and season for everything and now continues:
So I realized that all we can do is be happy and do the best we can while we are still alive.
All of us should eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for. It is God's gift.
I know that everything God does will last forever.
You can't add anything to it or take anything away from it.
And one thing God does is to make us stand in awe of him.
Whatever happens or can happen has already happened before. God makes the same thing happen again and again.
Injustice in the World
In addition, I have also noticed that in this world you find wickedness where justice and right ought to be.
I told myself, "God is going to judge the righteous and the evil alike, because everything, every action, will happen at its own set time."
I decided that God is testing us, to show us that we are no better than animals.
After all, the same fate awaits human beings and animals alike.
One dies just like the other.
They are the same kind of creature.
A human being is no better off than an animal, because life has no meaning for either.
They are both going to the same place-the dust.
They both came from it; they will both go back to it.
How can anyone be sure that the human spirit goes upward while an animal's spirit goes down into the ground?
So I realized then that the best thing we can do is enjoy what we have worked for.
There is nothing else we can do.
There is no way for us to know what will happen after we die.
Verse 15 offers great comfort found in the merry-go-round of life:
it's all been done before and God has been there too.
When it time seems to run away from us, it is still under the complete sovereignty of God.
This certainly reminds us to live our days with joy - "this is the gift of God".
God's good purpose and plan marches forward through time unthwarted and unstoppable.
The joy we can experience in this life is the one thing that will remain to the end of it.
When we are on our deathbeds, the memories of a life well spent will provide us pleasure like a warm blanket, comforting and assuring us.
But this joy and positive reflection only results from the decision to follow in the ways of the Lord.
Living life without Him is only foolishness and results in frustration, anger, and resentment.
That kind of life produces a reflection we would find unbearable.
And this is Solomon's point:
to live godless produces far more questions than answers.
It sets us up to only pursue earthly things.
Ignoring the God who gave us breath only results in loss and meaninglessness.
As followers of Jesus, however, we look forward to the end of life.
It means our journey is finished and we are "promoted" home.
We don't lose hope because our hope is not based here; it's based "there".
We can rest in His control, timing, and purposes: they are good and they are absolute.
I think my friend is right: before you know it, it'll be "next Christmas" and we'll need to reflect what we did and what we're doing with our fleeting years.
Make the most of them starting today.
Live for Him, smile more, laugh more, enjoy more - "this is the gift of God".
><(((°>
Dr. Joel Dorman
I've served at churches in several places across the United States.
I'm Lead Pastor at First Baptist Church of Merced (Merced, CA) where my primary responsibilities are teaching the Scriptures, leading the church, casting the vision for The Great Commandment and Great Commission, and developing leaders for the next level in their ministry.
The Lord blessed me with publishing my first book in 2017:
31 Days of Spiritual Wisdom: A Month in the Proverbs, cowrote an Advent devotional in 2019 called The Battle for Christmas:
A Devotional for Advent and Christmas, and am currently working on writing a book about Cultivating Leadership Behaviours.
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