Dear Grace,
Can you believe that our study in Ecclesiastes is almost over? (Hopefully, the living it out isn’t anywhere near finished!) I don’t know about you, but I’ve been finding myself quoting or referring back to Ecclesiastes regularly in conversation…even with people who aren’t going through the series with us.
The observation that life is hebel – a vapor and enigma – is real.
Last week, I was invited to be a part of a faculty of speakers up in Boston, helping church planters think about various aspects of what it means to lead a multi-ethnic church. This is the second one I’ve been a part of, but this one was different. Only three out of thirty registered participants showed up! Talk about the unpredictability of life! No matter how much you plan, you just never know how life will unfold. The whole team ended up rearranging flights and heading back to our respective homes early.
Additionally, I spent most of the past week helping my mother move out of her home. After my third trip to the dump, I was reminded of the hebel of all that we possess and accumulate. It gets passed on to someone who didn’t earn it, doesn’t appreciate it the way we did, and then disposes of it in a landfill. Hebel. Lord, help me build my life around and on things that last and matter!
So many of these life circumstances keep bringing to my attention the urgency and reality of God’s Word in Ecclesiastes. I am reminded that I will die. It’s Jesus and His purposes that remain. The kingdom of God is eternal. My house is not. Lord, help me to remember that.
How about you? How has God been speaking to you through this book? As we come to a close on this series, I’d like to invite you to share in one to two sentences a way that Ecclesiastes is impacting/shaping you. It doesn’t have to be comprehensive, just authentic!
Here’s a simple form that you can use to give your Ecclesiastes testimony. I’ll share some testimonies this coming Sunday as well as the following week! Together, let’s give thanks to the God who speaks and gives us wisdom for how to navigate and live in this unpredictable world.
Through our obedience to His Word in Ecclesiastes, may God bring to pass the witness promised in Deuteronomy 4:6-8, “Carefully follow [the statutes and commandments], for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples. When they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great [people] is indeed a wise and understanding people.’ For what great [people] is there that has a god near to it as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call to him? And what great [people] has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?”