Meaningless?

Meaningless?

“Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “Utterly Meaningless!” With these words Solomon opens the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon, in Chapters 1 and 2, describes life – and how the same fate, death, overtakes both rich and poor, wise and foolish. He sees that, in the end, all that man strives to be and to attain comes to nothing after he dies – he is not remembered by future generations, and all his wealth is passed on to someone else. So, he wonders, why live wisely or chase after wealth? He does see that wisdom is better than folly, but what does man gain for his toil?

I see this attitude in the world all around me, especially in the teenagers I work with. They wonder, “Why live the way someone tells me I should? Why tell the truth if I would get in trouble? Having goals isn’t going to stop my parents from abusing me, gangs from controlling me, etc!” In the cliché words of the acting world, “What’s my motivation!?” They don’t ask me these questions in so many words, but these questions ring clear each time I teach a lesson. One day, I sat down to consider this, and realized that really, without God, there is no motivation to live “right.” The only motivation is to “make the world a better place” or be thought of as “a good person.” But if no one remembers generations later, and if it doesn’t change life circumstances, why bother?

I read once that “While Proverbs begins with God and asks, ‘How should we live?’ Ecclesiastes begins without God and asks, ‘Why should we live?’” This, brothers and sisters, is a revelation that has radically changed my perspective. God provides the motivation, the meaning, and the purpose in live. “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Simply, it is God, not culture, not environment, not family and friends, that give life purpose and meaning. With God as your life center, you have Someone stable and unchanging on which to build your life’s foundation. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Isn’t this a wonderful promise? In a world whose ideologies and messages change like the shifting sand, we have a solid rock, Jesus Christ, “the Chief Cornerstone” on whom to build our lives!!!

Therefore, standing on this firm foundation, we have a calling – a calling to offer this Meaning and Purpose to those in the world – not violently, not in coercion, but in love. When you offer Jesus, the glorious message of the Gospel, to those around you, do so out of compassion and love, out of a desire to offer what is good and eternal to your friends and family. Give more than just a sermon. Give life, give purpose, and see what happens when God puts real meaning into life!