Ecclesiastes

I think Ecclesiastes is becoming one of my most favourite books of the Old Testament. For many, it is unpopular as it seems very negative and pessimistic, but I find it touches on the deepest question of all;

'What is life all about?'

The writer of the book is believed to be King Solomon, who was the 3rd king of Israel after Saul and his father David. He had inherited much from his father, but built on it further with wise political decisions. His reign started well, with the building of the Temple and his proclamation of God being at the centre of their Kingdom, but as he acquired more wealth, wives and horses (which kings were warned about in Deuteronomy), his focus soon became blurred.

So at the end of his prosperous and what would seem on the surface, successful life, we find him writing the book of Ecclesiastes as he reflects on what has been.

1:2 - "Everything is meaningless," says the teacher, "completely meaningless!"

This is not the sort of start you would expect from a great leaders autobiography!

But, after explaining that everything he has tried (wealth, jobs, wisdom, companionship) left him feeling hopeless, he concludes in verse 13 of chapter 12;

"Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty."

At the end of his life, Solomon can see that life is short and many of the things we seek and desire from the world around us are temporary and ultimately unfulfilling, but that with an understanding of God and the things he asks us to do in this life and in the hope we have after, we find meaning and fulfilment.

Check out Ecclesiastes for yourself and try and read it through the eyes of your friends and family who are searching for meaning in life.

Maybe that person is you?

Life is meaningless...without the meaning and worth that Jesus has given it!

Boenhoffer on Disillusionment with Community...

"Inumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and try to realize it. But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves.

By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream. God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both. A community which cannot bear and cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse. Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hinderance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intetntions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.

God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the cirlce of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.

Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship, because God has bound us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ, long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients. We thank God for what He has done for us. We thank God for giving us brethren who live by His call, by His forgiveness and His promise. We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what He does give us daily. And is not what he has been given us enough: brothers, who will go on living with us through sin and need under the blessing of His grace? Is the divine gift of Christian fellowship anything less than this, any day, even the most difficult and distressing day? Even when sin and misunderstanding burden the communal life, is not the sinning brother still a brother, with whom I, too, stand under the Word of Christ? Will not his sin be a constant occasion for me to give thanks that both of us may live in the forgiving love of God in Jesus Christ? Thus the very hour of disillusionment with my brother becomes incomparably salutary, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and Deed which really binds us together - the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. When the morning mists of dreams vanish, then dawns the bright day of Christian fellowship."

Jean Vanier on Authority...

"The role of authority can only be understood if it is seen as one of the many gifts or ministries which we need to build a community. It is, of course, a very important gift, because the community's well being and growth depend to a great extent on the way it is exercised. But too often authority is seen as the only gift; the role of everyone else in the community is seen simply as obedience to it. This, however, is an industrial or military model of authority. In a community, authority needs to be exercised in a completely different way. The leaders do not have a monopoly on insights and gifts; their role on the contrary, is to help all the community's members to exercise their own gifts for the good of the whole. A community can only become a harmonious whole, with 'one heart, one soul, one spirit', if all its members are exercising their own gifts fully. If the model of their relationship to authority is worker to boss, or soldier to officer, then there is no understanding of what community means."

Community and Growth

I'm currently reading 'Community and Growth' by Jean Vanier. It's a great book based on his experience of living with others in intentional community houses with the mentally handicapped and their helpers over the last 50 years or so. He has some excellent insights and the wisdom he brings comes from experince rather than just theory. I've found it very challenging.

There are many quotes I could write, but one that really struck me the other day is as follows;

"If we are in community only to 'do things', it's daily life will not nourish us; we will be constantly thinking ahead, because we can always find something urgent to be done. If we live in a poor neighbourhood or with people in distress, we are constantly challenged. Daily life is only nourishing when we have discovered the wisdom of the present moment and the presence of God in small things. It is only nourishing when we have given up fighting reality and accept it, discovering the message and gift of the moment. If we see housework, or cooking simply as chores which have to be got through, we will get tired and irritable; we will not be able to see the beauty around us. But if we discover that we live with God and our brothers and sisters through what has to be done in the present moment, we become peaceful. We stop looking to the future; we take time to live. We are no longer in a hurry because we have discovered that there is gift and grace in the present of the book-keeping, the meetings, the chores and the welcome."

As I've made an effort to slow down and be thankful to God for the simple things of the day, I've found that I have experienced the peace that Vanier talks about.

A lot of what I do in my job is planning for the future and looking ahead and I often forget to acknowledge the present. I mainly find this with regards to relationships. If the person in front of me isn't going to help me achieve my goal, then I don't often give them time and effort.

I live very strongly with agendas that are future focused.

I struggle to live in the mundane mess of everyday.

But I want to. I want to be thankful for the simple things. I want to live in the moment more. This doesn't mean I don't think or plan for the future, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the joys of today.

Each day is a gift that I'm keen to enjoy!

Old stuff...

I found this poem on my myspace page (does everyone remember myspace, poor dabs!), which must have been written about 4 years ago. I think it still describes where I am pretty well;

Deeper than I dare know.
Struggling to keep myself on track.
Clinging to the one I know will Love.
Daring to move into the unknown so that I may know life.
Desperate for more than I've known.
Simple life.
Complex world.
Finding the balance of seclusion and exposure.
Unlocking others.
Standing strong with weak knees.
Focus on the unchangable.
Pulled into comfort.
Battling to stay out.
Trying to live up to the status I have been given.
Laughing all the while.
Waiting in anticipation for what is ahead........