Dear Friends,
"Everything is wearisome
beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No
matter how much we hear, we are not content. Everything is wearisome beyond
description." Ecclesiastes 1:8
What a good reminder of the
importance of looking up when you're looking down from pastor and evangelist
Greg Laurie
“If you’ve ever ridden a
stationary bike, then you know that no matter how much you pedal, you never go
anywhere. And even if you’re riding a high-tech bike with a monitor displaying
terrain that you’re supposedly going over, a quick look around reminds you that
you’re on a machine. And you’re in the same place where you started.
That is what life can be
like sometimes. You’re always trying, but it seems like you’re not going
anywhere.
Solomon looked at life that
way. He wrote, “What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?
Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. . . .
Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are
never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content” (Ecclesiastes
1:3–4, 8 NLT).
That’s a bleak way to look
at life. But throughout Ecclesiastes, Solomon uses a phrase that helps us
explain his outlook: “under the sun.”
Solomon was speaking of
horizontal, strictly human living. He rarely looked above the sun for answers.
In other words, he was not looking to God. Instead, he was looking
horizontally. He was looking to this planet, to this world, for answers.
As a result, Solomon decided
to take a crash course on sin. He was prepared to try everything that was out
there. He wanted the finest entertainment the world offered and the finest
education that money could buy. And he wanted to experience unlimited
materialism. Basically, Solomon wanted to experience everything there was to
experience.
Solomon had what most people
only dream of. But in the end, it turned out to be a nightmare.
This serves as a reminder
that if we leave God out of the equation when we attempt to meet the deepest
needs of our lives, we always will come up empty."
Have a wonderful weekend
and remember don't forget to "Keep looking up!"
Yours in faith and
friendship,
Tom
