We Are Insignificant

We are insignificant.

Atheists even like to say that we are insignificant.

Gandhi once said, "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."

But this truth isn't just a harsh truth without a positive answer. We aren't left with the pessimism and disillusionment of the early chapters that one may read in Ecclesiastes without hope. The author wallows in the meaninglessness of it all, but that book doesn't just end there. We aren't atheists without a God. God's message doesn't just leave us without hope.

I want to add a big "but" to the statement that we are insignificant because, like Sir Mix A Lot I like big "buts."Without adding to the statement "we are insignificant," that phrase is only a half truth - almost a lie.
 

You see, we are insignificant BUT if we are doing the things of God, then we are not doing something insignificant. We are doing something that will last. When we acknowledge our insignificance and begin to live for the significant One, then we vicariously become significant. God is trying to wake us up to Him. From our slumber of selfishness into the consciousness of Him. He wants us to realize that pursuing our own dreams and desires is insignificant, but living for His dreams and desire is significant.

We look up into the deep expanse of the night sky. We look out on the neverending ocean. We stare in the face of the death. We are surrounded by things that should constantly remind us about our own insignificance. But then the world gives us all this self-help mumbo jumbo that pulls us away from the precipice of truth that God created for us to peer into. Instead, we begin to think that we are great, that we are really someone special. We imagine that we are irreplaceable. We think that God loves us for who we are rather than Him loving us despite who we are. We think we are God's gift to humanity. We let pride sink in and are swallowed up by pride's mistress, selfishness.  We begin to think we are significant, forgetting that we are insignificant, which prevents us from truly living for God.

For at the core of becoming a Christian is dying to ourselves and giving our own life up for the life God has for us. Dying to our kingdom and our ways and beginning to live for His Kingdom and His ways. But we won't do that if we think our life is the special life, a significant life that isn't worth giving up.

So the harsh truth is that we are insignificant. You. Me. All insignificant.

However, we find significance in living for the glory of God.

Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV).

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17 ESV).

Or the ending of Ecclesiastes. 

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. (Ecclesisates 12:13-14 ESV). 

We are insignificant, but we find significance in God.

Fleeing The Vanity

 "Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2 ESV).

I found myself last night enjoying one of the best concerts in my life, The Avett Brothers at the Embassy in Fort Wayne. Passion. Love. Enjoyment. It was wonderful. They seemed to just lay it all out during that performance, unleashing their souls onto the crowd.

Then I had one of those moments. Maybe it was due to one of the introspective songs. I don't really know. Maybe it was because we were enjoying ourselves in a building where everyone that invested their lives in building it has passed from this life. But that sense of meaningless wanted to slither into my life and ruin my experience in the present. This is all vanity.

This is all meaningless. All of you here today - everyone in this crowd - will be gone tomorrow. In one hundred years, the joy that is felt here will have disappeared. Like it never happened. Or that is what the lie told me. That is what the voice trying to suck the joy out of my life said.

The word "vanity" is actually a "mist," "vapor," or a "mere breath." It is here for a moment and passes away. It is alluring in our moments of depression or sadness to fall prey to the wayward writings of the author of Ecclesiastes. They are very poetic, touching, and beautiful as words, yet they are destructive in action. These thoughts of vanity suck the joy out of our lives. When we read Ecclesiastes, we are reading the thoughts of a wounded soul who wasted his life. Either he, or someone else writing commentary on the book, got the point of life right and wrote it at the end of the book.

"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 12:13-14 ESV).

Think of the whole process of learning the inspired truth from Ecclesiastes like getting the point from a movie, a really depressing movie with a great lifechanging point. A point that would be missed if you turned the movie off in the midst of all the pain and suffering. You see the misery that the wrong life brings. You see the pointlessness of all the wasted and misplaced effort. Or think of it as hearing a testimony. When I share my testimony, I share a lot of wrong thoughts I had. I share a lot of stupid actions. In elaborating on the life that comes from living life from a place of bad beliefs, we see the meaningless of it all. Ecclesiastes isn't in the Bible to teach us that life is meaningless. It's there to teach us that meaning can only be found in living for God.

Because life isn't meaningless. Even in the little things, amazingness can happen. An awesome concert, enjoying the blessings of God's good yet fallen earth with our fellow man isn't meaningless. A wonderful mix of music, vitality, God, my loved one, and my own thoughts stirred my soul. Changing me. Transforming me into someone better if I would only allow them to. Now, if we don't allow it to transform us, then the writer of Ecclesiastes is right: it is all meaningless. But life in God isn't meaningless.

To say the life that God has given us to bring about His will is meaningless is a slap to the meaning and purpose that God has given us. Loving our neighbors. Helping the hurting. Bringing hope to the hopeless. Sharing the eternal truths of God in a loving way. None of it is meaningless.

It's true. I won't be here in one hundred years. Everyone in that concert hall will be dead. None of us reading this article soon after its writing will be alive in that time. And this article will, more than likely, be lost amongst the mist of the massive amounts of writing that is being printed during our times. One more article to join the wasteland of history.

But this article, like all experiences, is not meaningless if it changes us. When we are faithful to God, He takes our relatively futile actions, shapes them together with everyone else's seemingly futile actions, and creates something beautiful. In Him, there is never meaninglessness. We must rise out of the mist into the new day.

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An even better song to exemplify this thought. It was released about a half a year after this article was written. I can't embed it since it's not on Youtube, so just click this link.

Ecclesiastes and Wisdom

"Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

'For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.'"

Ecclesiastes 1:17-18

I think the writer of Ecclesiastes is wrong in this section. The pursuit of wisdom is not chasing after the wind. Wisdom does not bring sorrow. That's not to say that I don't believe the book of Ecclesiastes is inspired. It's just that it is a whole book, and it, along with Job, are two of the most dangerous books to just take a section out of and act like those few verses are the truth. They are great to study and wrestle with as they show the common thoughts of the time. Thoughts that have morphed but retain their material in today's age.

The wayward journey of a life apart from God is what most of Ecclesiastes is expressing. His words connect because we can relate to the feeling in moments of despair. But the truth is that fearing God and keeping His commandments is what will make you whole. It brings meaning to the knowledge. It brings insight to the path of the Lord (true wisdom).God brings meaning to the meaningless. God brings hope to despair. God brings life to folly. While the writer of Ecclesiastes states that everything is vain, God and His people are in the business of bringing beauty into this world of messes. And this is the conclusion of the book. Throughout the book, we see the ramblings of a lost man. The ending, which many argue was tacked on by another writer, states the true purpose of life: Fearing God and keeping His commandments will make you whole.

Solomon was lost. Not because of his wisdom but because of ignoring his wisdom. He desired women, wealth, and power over doing what he knew was the right thing to do. Wisdom is knowing what is right or wrong (1 Kings 3:9). How can knowing the right way to go be a bad thing? It only is a bad thing in the mind of the depressed and despairing author of Ecclesiastes, and us when we share in the depression and despair. We love to wallow in our hopelessness. It's even better when we can share the mud with others. Not being accusatory toward anyone else; I know this from experience. But God offers hope to the despairing if we will just fear God and keep his commandments. In that place we will be whole despite our temporary feelings of brokenness.

If the writings discarding wisdom throughout Ecclesiastes is an inspired conclusion, then it contradicts with other non-poetic/non-artistic passages of Scripture. Wisdom is a thing to be desired (Proverbs 1-2,16:16, 8:11). God promises to give us wisdom (James 1:5). God was pleased with Solomon when he asked for it (1 Kings 3:10). Wisdom is just knowing how to discern right from wrong and discovering what God wants us to do with our life. It is a frustrating thing to not have; it is a beautiful thing to discover. Like the writer of Proverbs describes it, wisdom is like the prominent, powerful lady of the city. Something we should desire to be part of our lives.

"Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" (James 3:13-18 ESV).

Ignorance might seem like bliss at times. Seeing the brokenness around us does cause us grief, as the writer expressed. But knowledge is what opens our eyes to bringing about the necessary change in this world, a world that we would like to shield from our eyes at times. Wisdom lets us know how to go about bringing that change into reality. The lack of knowledge allows us to be deceived and manipulated. It also allows us to pretend like everything is fine, which leads to us not living a life passionately pursuing God's kingdom. The lack of wisdom causes us to go in the wrong direction. Knowledge and wisdom are both good things in their proper place, but we must always remember that the greatest is love.

Ecclesiastes and Job are minefields when not read in their entirety. They are not to be read like other books. They are there to keep us from worshiping wisdom itself rather than the God who gives us wisdom.