MEANINGLESS! MEANINGLESS?نموونە
History repeats itself. Seasons come and go. Today is just like yesterday. Eat, sleep, work, repeat.
Life “under the sun” – life in this marvellous and troubled and frustrating world – is constant change, but it’s also the weary feeling that nothing really changes, nothing sticks. You may have felt this about politics, or your relationships. You surely have at least felt it about the washing up! So much of life is monotonous.
Feeling restless? The Teacher gives voice to your frustration – and just to have it articulated brings some reassurance. It is a shared experience!
That there is nothing new under the sun, though, is also a reminder: human evil and failure is not unprecedented – nor does it last forever. The Christian will not be surprised by things going badly. But the Christian will always hope, trust, persevere, love.
Does change seem scary, or exciting, or elusive? What looks to you like something “new under the sun”? Is it?
Prayer: Lord, meet me in my disillusionment. Teach me to rejoice in the rhythms of the world you have created and renew my assurance that my labour for you is not in vain. Amen.
Scripture
About this Plan
The book of Ecclesiastes is not an easy part of the Bible – largely because it plumbs depths to our souls and experience that are not easy either. Strap in for an unflinching, possibly uncomfortable, but ultimately hopeful encounter with a very ancient and also very contemporary anguish about what it’s like to be human in God’s marvellous, broken world.
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