Love You, Long Time

I like things that take time:

• A well written and well delivered sermon.
• Cooking.
• Evolution of friendships.
• Breakfast.
• Unraveling of a mystery.
• A baby.
• God's kingdom.

Bring on the Grey Hairs!

I'm really looking forward to being older than I am. At my next birthday, I'll be 30 if you count in the Chinese tradition (where you're 1 when you're born and turn 2 when you've lived for 12 months). I can't wait to be out of my 20s. It's been a decade of ups and downs. And in many ways, a big ol' mess. I'm grateful for how those things have developed me, but I will be glad to leave my 20s behind. It's not that I expect things to get better in my 30s. But I expect me to be different and more equipped.

I look forward to being stiller, more sure of God's truth and love, more truthful and loving, and letting Christ make his dwelling in me completely. I look forward to bearing old, closed scars having survived injuries and fought good battles. And I look forward to being softened by time and bearing the callouses of hard work. I look forward to being more sincere and teachable, evenhanded and evenminded, seeing that "it's not as simple as that" or "it's not the right time".

People often love people for their youthfulness: vitality, beauty, potential, but these things often don't last. When those things have been stripped away by time, you know if you're really loved.

I am looking forward to look older than I do now. People sometimes dismiss what I say until they find out that 1. I'm not a teenager. 2. I work for the church. 3. I'm studying theology after finishing undergrad studies. 4. I've worked as a nurse. 5. I've lived overseas. Why do these external things matter so much?

And I really look forward to being closer to being in paradise with my Lord. Eternity. No, it's not more of this! Who wants an eternity of this world?? No, he promises an unending day of joy. Let the day come quickly.

Meaningless, Meaningless?

That funny word that translators scratch their heads at is the refrain through Ecclesiastes and probably its key:

Hebel (Hebrew): heh'-bel, hab-ale' (English: havel). Often used as an adverb, emptiness or vanity, figuratively something transitory and unsatisfactory. Mist, vapour.

You get Meaningless (NIV), Vanity (KJV), Enigma (Lindsay Wilson, OT guy at Ridley). Others have gone with Smoke (The Message), Vapour (The Amplied). Fox has interpreted it as something like Absurdity, CEV says Nonsense, Useless (CEV), Holman's gone with Absolute Futility.

Someone said the point of it was 'transience'. Why not, since the literal sense is "mist", "vapour"? Earthly things are ephemeral.



"Hebel" bears an allusion to "Abel", who made a cameo at the start of the episode about the first family (he died at the hands of his brother, killer Cain, early in the piece).

The writer of Ecclesiastes is a wise and faithful follower of the true God. He throws himself into life, succeeds at everything and is still deeply frustrated. And in parts of the picture, he's despairing at how long things lasts. What's the point of building up an empire, when you'll have to give it over to someone when you die, who'll stuff it all up in a few days? It's like chasing the wind.

The transience of everything under the sun makes a good contrast to the Everlasting Lord and his eternal kingdom. We are like the grass of the field.

And here's where we readers can sober up. Whatever pleasures, riches, good things on earth won't last. So don't put your stock in them. Whatever sufferings, injustices, evils on earth won't last. So grieve over those things as those with hope. And be comforted that this too shall pass.

There is a day coming that will last forever. And in that day The Doorkeeper and The Prize is God himself. Ecclesiastes 12:13-4

Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.

Jean: if you're reading, I didn't mean for our blogs to cross-pollinate. I've been mulling over Hebel for a while, as a part of my thinking on theodicy. Your post on work was really stimulating.