Vanity

In an early draft of Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, the Inquisitor gives a terrifying account of what happens to the human soul when it doubts its purpose: "For the secret of the man's being is not only to live...but to live for something definite. Without a firm notion of what he is living for, man will not accept life and will rather destroy himself than remain on earth..."The Call, Os Guinness, p. 2

Finding my purpose in life has not been easy. Just when I think I finally know what it means for me, I realize how far my ideas fall short of it. And find myself beset by the idea of meaninglessness. 

In this season of life, I have been learning much from Pastor Richard's preaching on Ecclesiastes and his Sunday School series on Gospel and Work. 

Ecclesiastes is an interesting book that doesn't seem to fit in the Bible. But for all its contrasting pessimism, God and His calling for man is all the more highlighted against the backdrop of the meaningless of life.  

Indeed, the Preacher tells us in Ecclesiastes that every earthly thing is meaningless, vanity of vanities. The succession of generations proceed -- man's life on earth is just a whisper -- while the earth remains unchanged. And what goes around comes around. The sun, the wind, the rivers all follow a cyclical and monotonous nature. We are left with weariness and dissatisfaction in earthly things. And also the pessimism that there is nothing new.

However, we can take heart that this isn't the full picture. Jesus gives us the whole picture:

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

Mark 8:34-35

And God is in fact making all things new (Rev. 21:5), His mercies are new every morning (Lam 3:24), He gives us a new heart (Ez. 36), and a new song (Is. 42).

And it is God whom the Preacher will argue later, that gives meaning to life.  

 

In light of the vanity of earthly things, two questions we must ask ourselves:

1) What is the thing that takes up most of our time?

2) Have we submitted our lives to the One who accords value? 

"You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you." Augustine