Chasing After the Wind

If you were to face the loss of a job, dwindling finances, and a mortgage you can't pay, how would you react?  If the economy became so bleak that the necessities of life became harder to acquire, what would be your response? Despair?  Hopelessness?  Desperation that drives you to do whatever is necessary to cling to these things?

I would say that the majority of us react that way.  The last two generations have become used to having everything they want or need, even at the expense of placing themselves in the graveyard of debt, passing it onto their children to deal with after they are gone (Eccl. 2:18-22).

Jesus said that at the time of the end, men would continue to revel and spend, in spite of the things that are happening around them (Matthew 24:37-39).   If you don't believe that we are approaching His return, stop and take a look around you.  Open your eyes to how you and others view life; the recreation you think you deserve, and the toys and gadgets that you think brings you happiness.  Ponder the waste of time and money spent on frivolous, decadent displays of "self" which only further supports the LORD'S warnings of how men will be living their lives during that point in history.

"All is vanity," wrote Solomon in Ecclesiastes (Eccl. 1:2).  Who knew this better than Solomon?  He had been given riches and possessions beyond the wildest dream of any man.  He asked for wisdom and God gave it to him.  He reveled and spent more than the wealthiest in history (Eccl. 1:14; 2:1-3; 2:11-12).  Yet, as his life drew to a close, Solomon realized that all that he had learned and acquired was nothing compared to knowing God and His will for man (Eccl. 5:6-8; cf Isaiah 49:4).

Solomon gained the greatest wisdom by acknowledging the folly of "chasing after the wind" and the results that it could bring (Eccl. 2:10-11).  The wisdom God gave him, albeit not what he expected, was revealed to him at the close of his life, not while he was enjoying the benefits in his youth (Eccl. 5:18-20).  I can think of no better way to end this post than to use the words of the wisest man to ever walk this earth and the summation of his life:

"Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, 'I have no pleasure in them'; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low— they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.  Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.

...The end of the matter; all has been heard.  Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.   For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil." ~ Ecclesiastes 12:1-8, 13, 14

I encourage you to take a closer examination of the things you value.  You may just end up in the same place Solomon found himself: that all he had done was chase after the wind.  None of the temporal things - riches, possessions, wisdom - truly matter in the big scheme of life.  It's WHO you know and obey while enjoying the benefits of His blessings on this earth that really matters.  As Solomon discovered - and I hope you do, too -  that kind of wisdom will bring the greatest riches, and they will last an eternity.