Exuberance and Exhaustion

Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator.  Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore.”  Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, and rain clouds continually darken your sky.  Remember him before your legs—the guards of your house—start to tremble; and before your shoulders—the strong men—stoop.  Remember him before your teeth—your few remaining servants—stop grinding; and before your eyes—the women looking through the windows—see dimly.  Remember him before the door to life’s opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades.  Now you rise at the first chirping of the birds, but then all their sounds will grow faint.  Remember him before you become fearful of falling and worry about danger in the streets; before your hair turns white like an almond tree in bloom, and you drag along without energy like a dying grasshopper, and the caperberry no longer inspires sexual desire.  Remember him before you near the grave, your everlasting home, when the mourners will weep at your funeral.  Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken.  Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well.  For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.  “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless.”  Keep this in mind:  The Teacher was considered wise, and he taught the people everything he knew.  He listened carefully to many proverbs, studying and classifying them.  The Teacher sought to find just the right words to express truths clearly.  The words of the wise are like cattle prods—painful but helpful.  Their collected sayings are like a nail-studded stick with which a shepherd drives the sheep.  But, my child, let me give you some further advice:  Be careful, for writing books is endless, and much study wears you out.  That’s the whole story.  Here now is my final conclusion:  Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.  God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.  Ecclesiastes 12:1-14

In every old man or woman there is a child awaiting release; a tribute to the memory of days when waking up would be without assorted pains, joints adjusting, and thoughts of:  what new ailment might there be on the menu today?

Solomon, or someone who knew him very well, wrote this part of Ecclesiastes.  And he contrasts the energy of youth, with the depletion of old age.  It can be depressing, especially if you’re closer to the end than the beginning. 

Yet, in it all, there is a sense of refreshing about the teacher’s conclusion, which gets down to the nub of what’s important, fearing God, and trusting all to His judgment.  He says God will judge all the good and bad, whether hidden or open.  Once again the contrast between youth and the aged is evident; youth are busy doing things, making their mark, full of energy and hope.  The old are winding-down, remembering, evaluating their lives, both good and bad, regrets and satisfaction.  The youth are on display; the old are watching reruns.  And God judges us all.

For You Today

Whether your life is flowing like spring water, or your well’s rope is broken along with the drawing bucket, life is the same…live it as God gives you breath, and give it to others as God blesses your strength.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic explore some of these:  Something Better and Remembering Before You Can’t

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com     Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Something Better

[1]

Monday, September 10, 2018

It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground.  But when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were all drowned.  It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.  It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.  How much more do I need to say?  It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets.  By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them.  They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword.  Their weakness was turned to strength.  They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.  Women received their loved ones back again from death.  But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free.  They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection.  Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips.  Others were chained in prisons.  Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword.  Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated.  They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.  All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.  For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.  Hebrews 11:29-40 (NLT)

When you look at life purely from the perspective of what happens to people, where some seem to enjoy enormous success, become billionaires, and make the “A-list”… and others have misfortune piled on top of tragedy … and it seems to make little sense … well, it’s easy to get discouraged and conclude that having faith just doesn’t lead to a better life.  Strength on top of more strength, or prison on top of wandering and scratching out a meager, homeless existence – why bother?

The question of how, and why God sorts out the mess of who gets what, and when they get it, and how much … well, it’s enough to literally drive you crazy if you dwell on it.  The Psalmist asked all those questions, and he also draws back the curtain on some answers:

Did I keep my heart pure for nothing?  Did I keep myself innocent for no reason?  I get nothing but trouble all day long; every morning brings me pain.  If I had really spoken this way to others, I would have been a traitor to your people.  So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper.   But what a difficult task it is!  Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked.  Truly, you put them on a slippery path and send them sliding over the cliff to destruction.  In an instant they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors.  When you arise, O Lord, you will laugh at their silly ideas as a person laughs at dreams in the morning.  Psalm 73:13-20(NLT)

The bottom line is that you could be, no matter what your heritage, training, IQ, DNA, body-mass index, hair color, strength, gender preference, contacts, college degrees, or experience … you could be on either end of the spectrum of rich, poor, healthy, sickly, long-living, or cut-down early.  People with all the right credentials wind up on the street with nowhere to go; people bound for the gutter wind up on Wall Street, owning it and the rich man who wound-up there…Hero to zero or the other way…in a New York minute!

Life can seem capricious and unfair!  But in it all, God really IS sorting it all out, and pointing us to something better.  And someday, as the Gospel song intones, SOME DAY in the sweet by and by God’s way will make sense to us; we will have our eyes opened and see the laughter of the redeemed in Heaven.

Let’s let Solomon, someone much wiser than I, have the last word about how to go about this tricky journey we call life:

Here now is my final conclusion:  Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.  God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.  Ecclesiastes 12:13b(NLT)

For You Today

Stay on His road; trust His hand; wait on His promises!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com