Chasing After the Wind
Off in the other room, the TV was droning on, getting louder as a commercial began. I heard a man’s voice say, “Where you go in life is up to you.”
I’m sure he did not intend the reaction he got from me. I thought about how very true that statement is.
You can accept the incredible love of God through Jesus Christ; live a life of service, joy, peace, and love; then go to be with him when you die.
Or—you can refuse him; live a life as a cynical pessimist, empty and longing all your life; and then go to hell when you die. It’s your choice—God doesn’t send people to hell.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, we see perhaps the first existentialist—the first to write down thoughts about his feelings of emptiness. Solomon, son of King David, wrote the book while he was king. He found that happiness and fulfillment did not come to him along with possessions and power. He tried big projects, great wealth, power over slaves, and pleasure with women, in an effort to find meaning and purpose to satisfy his heart.
But he was weighed down by cynicism, depression, heaviness of heart. He realized that no matter what, it all ended in death. Life was meaningless. He said, “I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
Solomon saw that happiness is found only in God. Everywhere he could see people running after things without meaning. He said, “I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Solomon saw what is true even today. Modern Americans are caught up in this “chasing after the wind”—busier than ever—unhappier than ever—farther from God than ever. We don't have to be like that. It's our choice.
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