Journal June 23, 2013

"The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."  (Ecl. 12:13)

It seems for me days move through weeks and months, responsibilities and projects are engaged and become a memory. What is life?  If substance is centered around my thoughts and experiences, albeit good,  something is very wrong.

Solomon was a great builder and writer, during his tenure of wise leadership the country prospered to become the envy of other nations. He was a man of  extreme talents and contrasts, of wisdom and vanity, empire building and vanity, justice and vanity, pleasures and vanity...what did this get him?

Ecclesiastes is the reflections of an old man near the end of his life who  is evaluating the purpose and meaning of life, and  looking back saw the futility of chasing after plans, pleasures, and big projects.

For eleven chapters the wise preacher bears upon us the vanities of life, wisdom, labor, and self pleasure. He leaves a negative view of life; implying it is vain, purposeless, and hopeless.

In the last chapter he nails down  - Follow your creator from your youth, seek the words given by the Shepherd and firmly fix them inside.  The wise man's last exhortation:  "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."

With no exceptions, everything of eternal value and  every meaning and purpose in life centers on relationships -  with God and with people.  All other centering is vanity.