Maybe it is due to another year having passed and the fact that I am reaching an age where my body is telling me, “I'm not as young as I used to be.” Maybe, its the fact that so many people, young and old alike, in my life, are dying or being presented the likelihood of death in the near future. That is sobering and often leaves us with emotional unrest as we contemplate our own mortality. Whatever it is, I have been heavily consumed with Ecclesiastes chapter 3 as of late. I encourage you to go back and read it for yourself but that is the passage where Solomon, the wisest person to ever live (a gift or a curse from God depending on the perspective), summarizes life on earth and the entire existence of the human race in the context of time or seasons. It is where we get the cliché phrase, “There is a season for everything.” Or, “...going through a season.” What most people miss or overlook is what happens in the middle of that chapter. We, more often than not, cling to what is said in the beginning or we clutch tightly what we are left with in the end but rarely do we give proper attention to what is being said in the middle. In the midst of this gripping analogy and metaphorical work is a profound statement that gives reason and meaning to literally everything. When you go back and read through the entire chapter, once you get through the whole chapter I want you to think back over everything that was said about life and humanity, the world and our place in it. Then, I want you to go back and focus in on, reading slowly so as to clearly pick up on the gravity of what is being stated, verses fourteen and fifteen. It reads in the ESV, “I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.”
That is profound! We tend to forget who God really is. In our mind's eye we condense God down to a list of rules or a sense of feeling. We busy ourselves and then squeeze God in with some inspiring quotes or favorite scripture references printed on our t shirts or shoes. We fail to acknowledge just how big He truly is. We fail to subject ourselves to His Kingship. The truth is that our lives are what should be condensed. He is eternal. He cannot be condensed. However, we are temporal and by nature of our created, finite being, we are already condensed. We are a vapor the Word says. Yet, we act and live as if the whole world is to be at our feet, to meet our demands, to bend to our will. How arrogant we are! People come and people go. Life is far to fragile and short to be consumed with the temporal. That is what Satan wants.You and I, we have an eternal destination and this life is just a stop along the way. What we do with this life has little if any real impact of the world when we are gone. We won't even be remembered in a few years. But, “...whatever God does endures forever;” He created you! He did that! “(He) knit (you) together in (your) mother's womb.” How you come into people's lives and how you leave them will impact them and point the way down the path you choose. Where will your life lead them? Our life is made up of seasons and each time those seasons change God gives us another chance to be the signpost that points the way to Him. Don't mourn those that leave you behind and don't mourn those that you yourself leave behind. Instead, mourn the missed opportunities to point the way to eternal life with Jesus that you failed to take. For, “...God seeks what has been driven away.” Are you drawing people in or driving them away?
