Community and Unity

As much as we like to believe we can do life on our own, it’s not true. Just read Ecclesiastes 4:9,12

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:9‭, ‬12 NLT

Clearly, we were made for community. Why do we need community?

1) Accountability: I’ve done so much better in life when people hold me accountable. I don’t have to like it, but I do know I need it.

2) Support: When you’re sick or experience the death of a loved one, there’s nothing like community to help you through that difficult time. Community also gives you the opportunity to do the same.

3) God is representative of community. We have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in God. So when we think of God, we should think of Community and Unity.

Now, do we need any more reason than that to pursue healthy communal relationships?

Perfect Timing

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 NLT

While Ecclesiastes may feel discouraging, it’s really not. It’s actually quite possible to find encouragement in the book. There is plenty of wisdom in it, and where there is wisdom, we can be encouraged.

Chapter three talks about there being a time for everything. There is a season for everything. It’s hard to believe or accept that there is a time for life and death, crying and laughing, love and hate, and a time for peace and war. But rather than be discouraged by this, what would happen if we embraced it?

Maybe what makes life difficult is not understanding the times. With that said, God knows the time for all of these things. It’s not up to us to figure it out or try to manipulate it, but to accept it. In accepting this, perhaps we can embark on a journey of peace about timing. After all, God has the perfect timing.

The Invitation

Photo by Dmitry Zvolskiy on Pexels.com

In order to be transparent it’s important that we admit struggles. I’ve shared that the past month a part of me wondered what’s the point? I know there is one, but some days I just wonder why do we do what we do? It was a good time to read Ecclesiastes because this question is answered in those scriptures.

I’m human so I struggle. Sometimes I see the hurt and pain and wonder where God is? Which is probably a good time to read Job when this happens, which thankfully was another good reminder this week. In the end, Job (42:3) says, “I spoke to You (God) about things I know nothing about–too great for me to understand.” So, while that’s not always the most comforting thing in the moment, it can be comforting because it’s a reminder. There are things too great for us to understand. God’s ways are too great for us to comprehend.

I’m reading a book, and as an aside he mentions someone who was about to give up on their faith. They went to Rwanda and saw the devastation of genocide and were about to give up on God. In the moment, they heard the Lord say, this is what happens when people walk away from Me. This is what happens when love and compassion leave a place.

That was what I needed. I needed to remember this truth: When God isn’t invited into a situation, the hurt and pain we see are the results. It’s not for lack of love and concern from God. It’s from God being uninvited to intervene. Today, search your heart, and ask God to reveal any areas that you haven’t given Him an invitation. I truly believe we will start to see some things change when we do this.

Ecclesiastes 2 – Futility of Work

I came to hate all my hard work here on earth, for I must leave to others everything I have earned. And who can tell whether my successors will be wise or foolish? Yet they will control everything I have gained by my skill and hard work under the sun. How meaningless! So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world. – Ecclesiastes 2:18‭-‬20 NLT

The Teacher has sought solace in work. Now, let’s be clear about this, work is a good thing. Work is a holy thing because God did it. This book is not telling you that work is bad because it’s not. What is bad is finding your life’s purpose only in work.

The Teacher has worked hard. He’s trying to create meaning and purpose in life from work alone, and now that he’s had his work accomplishments, he’s reflecting on how meaningless they are. After all his hard work, one day, he will die. After he’s dead, someone else will take over what he’s left behind. And the same is true for us.

One day, we will die. Perhaps we’ll leave a company or organization behind. Maybe, like me, you’ll leave a classroom behind. And we don’t know if our successors will be wise enough to manage the work or foolish enough to banish working and responsibility. When work is your only purpose, that is a scary thought. When you work out of your purpose, that is a freeing thought.

If your only purpose is to work, then there is nothing to leave behind and certainly nothing you can take with you. But if you find purpose in your work, you can begin to leave a legacy behind.

Why was work meaningless? Because work by itself can’t give you God’s eternal purpose for you.

Ecclesiastes 2

Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.
Ecclesiastes 2:10‭-‬11 NLT

Solomon is essentially saying that he enjoyed life. He had everything the world says we should want. He had servants, gardens, food, wine, resources, concubines, and wives. He denied himself no thing that we would deem pleasurable.

He even found pleasure in work, maybe even purpose in it (we’ll talk about work later). In other words, whatever he wanted, he had. Whatever he thought would make him happy, he had. No thing was off limits. Yet, in the end, he still had the same conclusion that he began with. It was all like chasing the wind.

It all brought momentary pleasure but no eternal value. It still left him wanting. So if pleasure didn’t bring a life purpose, he thought work might. Might it?

Ecclesiastes 1

These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem. “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”
Ecclesiastes 1:1‭-‬2 NLT

So, as you can see, we’re off to a great start. 🙂 It’s likely that this is written by Solomon, the wisest man to ever live. He’s coming out of the gate with this statement.

Everything is meaningless. It is completely meaningless. In other words, there’s no purpose to anything, and there’s no purpose in anything. Ouch!

I love that this is in the Bible. Not because i love or feed off of negativity. It’s quite the opposite of that idea. I love it because it’s so real and raw. Sometimes, this is genuinely how we feel. Sometimes, I feel like asking, what’s the point? This week, I’ve felt that way. Now, I can’t wallow in this feeling, but I need to address that it is a very real feeling.

Ecclesiastes doesn’t paint a picture of a perfect life. It doesn’t pretend that everything is always all good. People aren’t positive all the time or even most of the time. Materials don’t make peace and joy. That’s the hard truth we read in this book, and the beauty is that as we journey through it, we’ll discover what really makes peace and joy.

Introduction to Ecclesiastes

I really enjoy the Book of Ecclesiastes. I forget how much I enjoy it until I start reading it. It’s one of the more relatable books to me. Why? Because if we’re honest, sometimes we’re just not feeling it.

I would say, it’s certainly not ironic, but this week I’ve not been feeling it. Not feeling like working and not feeling like making the extra effort. Yet, I’ve got to do it. I’ve got to work. I’ve got to try. But I don’t feel like it…What’s the point?

Do you ever feel that way? Like there’s no point to your routine. Work, maybe play, and back at it all over again. This never-ending cycle of the mundane routine feels draining, doesn’t it?

If you relate to any of that, then you can understand why Ecclesiastes resonates. The Teacher, in the Book of Ecclesiastes is battling the question of life that has carried throughout centuries. What’s the point?

Let’s journey through Ecclesiastes for the answer.

Don’t Ignore the Signs

Hindsight is 20/20, or whatever is better than 20/20 these days. Things look clearer and make more sense after we look back at them. We see how we could’ve strategized better or responded differently.

Scholars have said the book of Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon in his later years. Looking back on his sin of idolatry and turning away from worshipping God alone. I sure hope his heart returned to the Lord. For now, let’s look at 1 Kings 11.

The Lord was very angry with Solomon, for his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. He had warned Solomon specifically about worshiping other gods, but Solomon did not listen to the Lord’s command. – 1 Kings 11:9‭-‬10 NLT

Look at you and me. I know I read this with a finger point and head scratch. Solomon, if God is repeatedly and specifically warning you about something you need to listen! It’s not friendly advice. It is literally Godly counsel. Even more, it’s not a suggestion, it’s a life or death decision.

But hold on. Don’t we do the same? We know our weaknesses and have seen the warning signs but for some reason the unhealthy thrill of sin creates allure.

We think we can’t help but at least sit on the fence… There’s no harm in an after work conversation… We can watch five more minutes and stop… What’s one more slice…

Before we know it we’re so far past the “Do Not Enter” sign. “Yield” is a thing of the past. And at best all we can see is “Slow Down.” I assume that’s how it happened to Solomon. He is considered the wisest man to ever live so it’s not like he was weak-minded. Maybe he was just too “lust-minded.” Maybe while inheriting so many of his family’s good traits he ignored the warning about falling prey to lust and women.

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, “You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.” Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord. In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God, as his father, David, had been. – 1 Kings 11:1-4 NLT

What’s your warning sign? What’s the thing that God says don’t do because you don’t want the path it’ll take you on? Today, don’t see God’s warnings as suggestions, but rather commandments. Commandments to living a better, God-honoring life.

Study this Book- Ecclesiastes

The Teacher is quite downtrodden in Ecclesiastes. It’s full of wisdom and truths, but at the same time you read it thinking, is there a light at the end of this tunnel?

Chapter 7 in particular was what I read today. There were some positives that made you feel good and then there were some very half empty outlooks. But what I found interesting after reading the positives and negatives of life the following verse was the ending to Chapter 7:

But I did find this: God created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path.” – Ecclesiastes 7:29 NLT

So before this, he’s talking about there being no virtuous men and women in this world. He pretty much says if you don’t follow God then you’re doomed to the trap and chains of the seductive woman. Again, half empty outlook to life. But in all of this, he concludes with this hope. And the hope really has nothing to do with us, but with God.

The hope we can have is what God intended for us to be like. He created us to be virtuous, and we are the ones who have chosen another path. Doesn’t that make you see the glass of life a little more half full? That God’s original intent for you had nothing to do with failure, hurt, pain, or sin. And although we in our fallen state experience all of the above, His plan is to still bring us through it all virtuously.

Study this Book – Ecclesiastes 2

These verses in chapter 2 are interesting to me:

Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.
Ecclesiastes 2:10‭-‬11 NLT

I think it’s easy to read it and say Solomon lived a spoiled life to find meaning. I tend to associate spoiled with the lack of hard work. And of course getting everything a person wants. And he said he did that. He didn’t deny himself and whatever he wanted he took.

But as you read you see that he also found pleasure in hard work. Perhaps he became a workaholic and “found” some type of reward in that.

These two ideas are contradictory of course. On one hand, there’s this lifestyle of spoiling oneself, and on the other hand he’s working hard. And honestly, I believe that is the point of all of this.

The point of this is that Solomon has tried to find meaning and value in life in everything. No matter where you fall on the life spectrum, Solomon has tried to find meaning there. Whether it was in doing nothing or doing everything, he tried it. And in the end, the only value he found in life was in God.

That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 NLT