August 15, 2008
Kicked
Over Ant Hills
I
sat at a red light in downtown during the lunch hour. The drivers were impatient
at the wait and you could almost feel their stress oozing out of the cars.
Perhaps oozing isn't the right word, perhaps throbbing is better.
The
pedestrians were so intent on getting to their destinations that they didn't
even notice one another. They moved like mindless robots, set on high speed
heading for unknown destinations.
The
whole scene reminded me of the scurrying that goes on when an ant hill is kicked
over. Everywhere you look, ants are frantically trying to figure out what
happened and what they're supposed to do about it. Unlike us, they have a reason
to be frantic when it happens. Surely we're smarter than ants. Aren't we?
We've
given our lives over to a lie. More, bigger, faster, better and we'll all be
happy and able to relax.
We
spend our whole lives working for retirement only to find out that when (or if)
we get there, we don't know what it means to have a life or how to live one.
We
value property over people. Resources over relationships. Treasure over time.
We've become all askew. We've got it backwards.
Things
and power never satisfy.
It's
nothing new, although I do believe it is getting worse.
King
Solomon tried it and found that it didn't work.
All
things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done
will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes
1:8-9 NIV
Whoever
loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with
his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume
them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them? Ecclesiastes
5:10-11 NIV
He
pursued pleasure, work, knowledge, all of the "isms" of his day and
more and none of them satisfied. He came to one conclusion at the end of it all.
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.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 NIV
A
profound verse. To me, what's even more profound is the fact that the earliest
of manuscripts don't have the word duty. They read:
Now
all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his
commandments; for this is the whole of man.
Ecclesiastes 12:13
People
are made in the image of God and our whole being is designed for worship. It's
not a duty, it's who we are. All our striving will never satisfy. The only thing
that satisfies for eternity is to allow ourselves to become all God intended us
to be, to walk in obedience and communion with Him.
Until
next time, may you put aside your endless strivings and just walk with Father.
It's what you're really looking for any way.
Be
blessed
Darrel
Mason