There are two passages assigned for today!
SCRIPTURE: Ecclesiastes 1
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind. What is wrong cannot be made right. What is missing cannot be recovered. [Ecclesiastes 1:14-15]
The Teacher is not very hopeful; from his point of view, there is no hope, it is all meaningless.
Like chasing the wind…
The Teacher is simply being honest, putting life and reality into historical perspective.
No matter how hard we try, no matter what we put our hands to, no matter how much power or money or success or pleasure we find, it will all end up in misery and death.
It sounds like the Teacher is leading us to despair, how can this be helpful?
What about positive thinking, what about faith, hope and love?
Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” [John 3:5-8]
All of our attempts to restore paradise and find happiness are doomed; we cannot enter the Kingdom of God (another name for paradise) by our own efforts, experiences or accomplishments – its hopeless, like chasing the wind.
What is wrong in the world cannot be made right (by us), what is missing cannot be recovered (by us).
But this is where the good news comes in.
Those born in this world cannot restore paradise, but those born from above (or born again) can.
Human life can only produce human results, hence the meaningless results.
But spiritual life, those born through the process of repentance (symbolized by baptism/water) and empowered by the Spirit of God, can produce good results.
In order to break free from the misery of this meaningless life, we need to be reborn and recreated by God, as a new creation.
With God in our life, and following God’s way of life, we suddenly harness the wind, become empowered by the wind.
No, we cannot catch the wind, but the wind can catch us, and use us to make right what is wrong, and restore what is missing.
As we shall see in Ecclesiastes, life is and always be meaningless on our own, no matter what we try to do.
But it does not need to be this way.
Having just celebrated Pentecost, we can experience life to the full, life as it was meant to be, if we allow the “wind” to embrace us and lead us.
We cannot catch the wind, but let the wind catch us!
PRAYER:
Lord, my life is an empty canvas sail, I cannot move myself. May Your wind blow me in Your direction, into the life of paradise that You intend for me!