Vanity of Vanities...
"Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity"-Ecclesiastes 11:9-10
I think Ecclesiastes is one of the most comical books in all of Scripture. In it, you have King Solomon - who essentially had just about anything you could ask for and everything in between - giving one of the most apathetic portraits of life that anyone could possibly give: All is vanity. Everything amounts to absolutely nothing. Do whatever you want because in the end it's just not going to mattet...at all. End of story.
Now, that's not exactly Solomon's message, so don't quote me on it. He does reference God heavily, as in the verse above, claiming that we're to live with our Creator in mind knowing judgment is ahead of us for all that we do. That's important to understand, in that I don't think Solomon is promoting a reckless lifestyle or an indifferent, ungrateful attitude towards the gift that is life, but I do think the older we get the more we will not only understand better where Solomon is coming from, but we'll agree with his sentiments completey.
When I say this is a comical claim, I suppose I have to say so with everyone in mind, in which case, there is nothing at all funny about Ecclesiastes. In fact, it means death for many people after a life lived for absolutely nothing. That's quite bleak. Fortunately though, mankind, in all it's self-acquired wisdom has dedicated an entire philosophy to embracing this idea. In other words, in hopes of finding the meaning of life, man has found that life means nothing, only they have omitted the God part. A rather profound discovery, if not a misguided and bit of a discouraging one. To spend your life trying to understand the very reason you exist, only to discover that it really doesn't matter whether or not you do is about as discouraging as it gets. Oh well, just slap a fancy name on whatever you want to call this philosophy, make it sound important, pass it around, and then die making it absolutely 100% unimportant and inconsequential to you anymore. You've just proved your philosophy true! Congrats! I think it would have been easier to have just read Ecclesiastes, but to each his own I suppose.
I don't mean to discuss philosophy or to pretend I know the details of existentialism or transcendentalism or whatever you want to believe(ism), but I do think Solomon's observations on life are exact, which would explain all the philosophical derivatives since. His strict and narrow focus on human life here on earth, with eternal life almost as an afterthought is funny for two reasons: 1) Because of the context in which Solomon exists; as possibly the richest, wisest, most powerful man alive. 2) Because it seems to almost contradict that which Scripture has taught and what we've always known life to be, which is a blessing and a gift from God to us. It is still that though, and as I said before, I do not think Solomon is at all ungrateful. He can however, accept that life and everything it has to offer is vain because he knows that outside of God and His glory, nothing else matters. Without God and His Glory at the forefront of all things, life is not life, and we do no exist.
For the unbeliever, this isn't at all a funny thing. They gain nothing, and if they happen to be wrong about God or simply remain hardened to Him (I suppose there really is not diference), there will be a final and eternal consequence. For the believer however, Solomon's observations provoke praise and admiration; a knowledge that this place and all it has to offer may not be much, but what little there is has been given us to enjoy, and should be used to the glory of our God. Life is still a blessing, meaning is still present, but to see this clearly, we are called to look beyond temporary creation and to our eternal Creator.
This is something I've been wrestling with for a few months now, and I've loved every single day of it. I am becoming more and more convinced that I, Adam James Watson, have been created by a Creator for a created purpose, and that the more I fall in line with this purpose, the better I function as a created being. It makes the most perfect sense. If indeed we have been made to glorify our God in everything that we do, then we are going to function best as humans when we are doing that very thing. Piper says it all the time, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." It's just the way things were created to play out. For us to think outside of God's glory, or to act outside of God's glory, or to live in any way outside of God's glory would be for us to function unnaturally and against our created purpose, essentially leading us absolutely nowhere. There is a quote by D.A. Carson that's remained with me for quite some time now:
"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it freedom; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated."
Unfortunately, I think the quote speaks just as directly to the believer as it does the unbeliever. If we think of ourselves as being created in God's image however, then we understand that humans hold a special place here on earth. Not only are we set apart in how we are made - in that we have a moral sense of right and wrong ( and I think great proof that we were created to glorify God) - but we are set above all else that is created. In a sense, all else was created for us to be used to bring God glory, but only as far as that. Only we've looked to the things created for us to satisfy God's glory to find ultimate satisfaction for ourselves. The things created for us have become our gods, and we have ceased to view them as the tools given to us by God to be used for Him. What a sad perversion that is. Not only is it a perversion, it’s a false hope and a vain pursuit; it can do nothing for us. The faulty effort to find joy in the things of hasn’t lead anywhere but to emptiness. It’s the most common tragic tale throughout all of history. How many times have we heard of the man or the woman who looks to gain everything, and in the process of doing so, finds that he or she has nothing in the end? We were made to submit to the Lord through having a relationship with Him and knowing that His plan and purpose for our life is known by Him, therefore we follow Him willingly. If we chose not to do this, we cease to have any plan, purpose, or destination outside of living strictly for ourselves, by ourselves, all to gain nothing.
I understand that I’m young. I know that I’m quite immature and naive about a lot of things, and that I have a lot to learn. However, I've found that the more my love and understanding for God grows, the less hope I have invested in the things of this world, and the bleaker my outlook on life becomes. I don’t mean to say I am giving up on life, but I sympathize more and more with Solomon's claim that everything we take part in here is vain and worthless...to an extent.
People will read this and think I have turned into some transcendental hippy who looks only to “life beyond” and has dismissed life at hand. This isn’t the case. I am beyond blessed with what God has given me, both in the things I can identify, and the things I cannot; in the things God has done in my life up to this point, and the things He will continue to do. I am blessed and I will always view life as nothing short of the precious gift that it is. What I am getting at though is this: if our purpose in life is to bring God glory (and I am convicted that it is), then nothing here on this earth (the things which God Himself is the creator of) has any purpose higher or lower than we as humans have but to also bring Him glory. If our highest purpose as the highest form of God's creation is to point to His glory, then what else in creation serves a better or higher purpose in and of itself, or for us than we do? The answer has to be nothing. With that in mind, everything is vanity if not used the way God intended them to be used. We were certainly not created for ourselves, and we hold the highest position in all of creation being the only created beings made in God's image. Nothing else has been more intimately designed, so nothing else is complete outside of God. If my chief satisfaction is in the things of the world (or if I believe it to be at least), then there is plenty to choose from, and plenty to fall back on when each fails. Since I was not created to be satisfied in the things of this world however, the source of my satisfaction points to only one thing, God Himself. Just as we weren’t created for ourselves, so the things of this world were not created for us either. In fact, the question of our satisfaction shouldn’t be a question at all. With our focus on the glory of God, our satisfaction is complete. Creation is not the answer of satisfaction for us because it does not appeal to our created purpose in any way. We were not made to satisfy ourselves, but to satisfy our Creator, the chief end of our satisfaction. The One in whom we are most complete.
In theory this all sounds nice and neat I suppose, but to actually apply it to our lives may seem disheartening, even for a believer. Is there really nothing that has to do strictly with our happiness or our enjoyment or our sense of self? No, not as far as I can tell. All things point to God, or were created to at least. I’m speaking not only of material things, but of the unseen, intangible intricacies of life: relationships, desires, goals, ambitions, satisfaction, success, emotions, failure, and so forth. How do we think through these things with our created purpose in mind? Exactly how Solomon has, they all mean nothing, they all get us nowhere, and they are all vain things...outside of God's glory.
I think through this on a personal level in a couple of ways, and I’ve been trying to convince myself of one thought that is rather frightening to conceive of. The thought is this: nothing in my life is ever going to, or could ever satisfy me completely. There is not one thing that will ever give me a sense of complete purpose, joy, or self-worth that will not come up void in some way. Let’s use a personal example:
I think about thing I look forward to most in my lifetime: marriage. More than anything else, the thing I anticipate most is meeting the woman I am going to fall in love with and take care of until she, or myself leaves this earth. There isn’t anything else that excites me more than that hope, and it’s such a precious hope that I can’t imagine at this point being dissatisfied at all in my future marriage. My emotional anticipation makes it difficult for me to imagine my marriage ever failing to satisfy me in any way, but I know for a fact that to some extent, it will. Arguments will occur, disagreements will arise, romance will cease, and our relationship will take turns that we could have never imagined possible. Our love for each other will be shaken, and in those difficult times what’s to stop frustration from ending it all? If I view my marriage as the foundation of my satisfaction and comfort, nothing will. I will be crushed if it fails me, even to the slightest extent. Now how is this encouraging? It isn’t. If my marriage alone cannot make me happy, then nothing can. If my wife - the one who alone will stand as the height of my happiness here on earth, who I will gladly love and take care of the rest of my days, the person who I will cherish more than I possibly could anything or anyone else - if she cannot satisfy me, is there anything or anyone else who possibly can? Absolutely not. How frightening is that? That my marriage - the most anticipate days of my life – can already be proven to fail me. If this is true of my wife, then it is true with everything else.
If I view my marriage as something that stands outside of a given opportunity to give God glory, then my focus will consist of nothing other than the failures of the relationship I have with my wife. I will have no hope that things will get better, I will not view my relationship as something precious enough to be reconciled, and my satisfaction, if not met, will be the cause of yet another worldly disappointment, which in this case, is quite a tragic one. My foundation must consist of God alone, and nothing else. One who does not fail, ever, and who will never change or disappoint. Once I have learned to be completely content in the promises and commands of the Lord, then will I be capable of viewing my marriage as the opportunity that it is to point to God. I will have a hope and a joy that could not be attained anywhere else. Hope that things will get better when they are difficult, and a hope that God will show me how best to love and care for my wife through even the most difficult of times. In fact, not only will I be able to look to God when things become difficult - He will not simply be a "plan b" for contentment or comfort when the first fails - but there will be even more reason to praise Him for the blessing that is my marriage when things could not be better. My marriage, the only hope I would have in the world without God’s grace, is dependent no the foundation of God's glory, and must be directed towards it. If this too is true of my wife, then it is also true of all else.
Marriage is but one example, and yet, because it is the most precious example I can think of, there is nothing which is exempt from being thought through in this manner. I need to start thinking about everything in such a way. Nothing will satisfy me, in and of the thing itself; it was not made to. This doesn’t give me much hope in anything. In fact, it gives me hope in only one thing.
Good, that’s exactly the way it should be.
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