Chasing The Wind

Solomon wrote - "I the Teacher, was King over Israel in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief." Eccl 1:16-18 NIV
"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." Eccl 12:13-14 NIV

What a contrast between the beginning and the conclusion of Solomon's observations on the life we mortals experience. If all that occurs in that "between" fails to arrive at that conclusion, then the common cynical assumption about the "meaninglessness" of life is absolutely accurate.

In every age since the beginning with Adam and Eve, God has consistently warned his human family about the futility of worshiping gods of our own making. In the end they are a form of self worship and cause our devotion to become purely selfish. Anyone can invent a "god" and use that human invention to control others out of superstitious fear. Those "gods" are merely impotent expressions of a misplaced fear of what we don't understand or cannot know about our human life.

Jesus came to help us learn to serve God out of a "fear" that transforms into "love". This had always been God's hope and intent as is obvious from Deuteronomy 6:4 and Jesus affirmation of it as the "Greatest Commandment" at Mark 12:29. But the pagan influence was so pervasive that superstitious fear reigned supreme and the love God had hoped to receive from his creation failed to materialize until Jesus taught and modeled it for us.

We can acquire wisdom and knowledge of life's processes and stages by study, experience and observation, just as Solomon testifies. But, if all that we learn fails to connect us with our Creator in absolute, childlike love for our Father, in the end it truly is "chasing after the wind."