Ecclesiastes 1

After a couple of weeks stewing on Proverbs I realized I needed to move on. Something was stirring in me and I didn't know what. Not quite discontent and not quite sadness. Maybe just confusion. I decided to take time to process before going back at Proverbs.
I spent the last week on vacation from my regular job and working with a friend building a dock. It was a great time working with two other Christians. It was a great time working.
I then spent Saturday with my kids and father down at a lake in Clinton Indiana. That was good and peaceful in spite of the rain. Then Saturday night me and the kids watched a movie called, "Facing Giants".
Now some of the dialogue was wodden and the acting wasn't fantastic but man what a story! The backdrop was a football coach and team but it was a Christian movie with Christian themes, lots of prayer and Biblical truth. I sat there for a while after the kids were in bed Saturday night realizing what was missing.
See, I am in a place in recovery and life now where the demons of the past aren't as scary as they once were. I'm calmer. I think I have better direction but I wonder. I realized sitting there in the rocker that I feel somewhat disconntected from God these days. Not in a dire way but on a deep and spiritual level. Well, having gone through Proverbs with all of you I decided to move on to other writings of Soloman. I went next to the book of Ecclesiastes. This is where we are today.

The first chapter starts off with a bang. He announces who he is in the first verse and then drops the hammer.
Verse 2: "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." (NIV)
At least it felt like the hammer fell.
He goes on to talk about the cycles of the Earth and life but in a very resigned voice.He has seen it all before. "Been there, done that." We hit a cresendo with verse 11: There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow." (NIV)
I have to be honest with you here...I was pretty exhausted when I got to this point in the chapter. But as I read on I realized it isn't dire or even upsetting. It's true but not with a spirit of resignation. It's true with hope because of the rest of the truth.
The last verse states, "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief." (NIV)
The truth is that it does. Part of wisdom is the knowledge of good and evil. We have both but some of us to a greater or lesser degree than others. But we learn and grow through experience and life and time.
See, wisdom and knowledge are important are important but without love of God and one another it doesn't matter. Chrst told someone that who was questioning Him about the most important commandment.
The balance I came to in the reading of Chapter One is that most of the journey here really is "chasing after the wind" but that the emptiness of growing and experiencing and learning can be quelled with Love.
Gods Speed,
Greg