“I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 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.” Ecclesiastes 1:16-17
The car sped around the track pursuing the elusive gold cup that waited only for the victor. The heat bled from the track, the wispy vapors rising into the air from the sticky black surface. The battle for first place was fierce with his competitor barely inches in front of him, inches from where he needed to be if he hoped to soon hoist that gold cup high above his head. He pressed hard into the accelerator pedal, he felt his car offer no reaction. He glanced at his tachometer, 7,500 rpms, the needle struggled to maintain its position within the red area on the gauge. His 8 cylinders were producing all they had been designed to produce, all 745 horsepower were being applied to the tarmac, there was nothing left. He pushed even harder upon the pedal, but for naught, there was nothing left to call upon as the black and white checkered flag pushed into his peripheral vision.
Human thinking. It has created industry, built skyscrapers that soar into the heavens, and even sent men into those heavens to rest their feet upon heavenly bodies. It has placed hearts of plastic into the flesh of men, created untold wealth through commerce, and invented countless pieces of technology that thrust man into an untold future. Yet when it comes to truly understanding the world in which God has placed mankind, how much progress has mankind made? What is the purpose of life, where does the meaning of life begin and end and who has the ability to not only grasp it with both hands, but then explain it to his brother? You see, in the beautiful, elegant and dismal realms of the book of Ecclesiastes, we see the brutal truth of mankind, that is, humans desperately pressing harder on the accelerator pedal of life, attempting to understand the depths of God’s creation with a brain that just can’t produce the power needed.
Today if you are pressing ever harder on that gas pedal trying to fully understand your life, your emotions, your current life station, or yes, even the current state of the world, you are following the same path that Solomon followed in Ecclesiastes, one that that led him to a conclusion that “there is nothing new under the sun.” The world spins and spins, seemingly in different directions, yet always producing similar results. But there is great hope buried within the seemingly meaningless message of Ecclesiastes. You see, the child of God has been enlightened beyond human capability. All those that recognize the plight of their sin, repent of that sin, and then call upon the work of Jesus Christ upon the cross, will be changed. The very Holy Spirit of God will come to rest upon the inner workings of their soul and that sinful creature will become anew. And the new creature will think differently, see the world differently, and be allowed glimpses of the wisdom of God, where previously only stood a void of human reasoning. You see, God never created man to fully understand the glory, beauty, and wonder of His creation, He created mankind to instead simply revel in it…simply enjoying the wonder, not defining it. Today, don’t press harder on the accelerator, trying to understand and explain all around you, but do just the opposite...lift your foot. And instead of speeding by the life that Christ has afforded you, slow down and simply take it all in. Let off the gas and let life happen. For the splendor of the journey is not simply located at the finish line, but all along the journey to get there.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
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