Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Hey there, folks.
We’re back in the saddle again. We had another great time with friends surrounding our college reunion, followed by 3 nights at Lieber Haven Resort on Orcas Island. Four couples were involved in that time on Orcas. We worked things out so Thano could join us too. We had a nice little visit with my sister and hubby in Federal Way before cruising the rest of the way home down the I-5 corridor.
I realize I have not submitted a pre-prepared schedule to follow in this devotional series—passing through the Old Testament in a year. But we do have in place a general rule of thumb—to cover about 3 chapters per day. So to follow through with that general plan from where we left off, I’ve calculated that we are looking at Ecclesiastes 3-5 today.
It’s no surprise that I face a big list. I better hang up here and get to some urgent calls.
Blessings on your day.
Love, Dad/Ray.
Over and over Solomon takes what is typically meaningful and calls it meaningless—and adds that it is a big bunch of futile “chasing of the wind” (e.g., 1:14). Those expressions call to my remembrance that folk song that was popular many years ago. Here—I’ll grab my guitar and sing it for you:
How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?
How many times must the canon balls fire before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend is blowin’ in the wind; the answer is blowin’ in the wind.”
Yippee! What a wonderful, uplifting, and meaningful commentary! The answer is blowing in the wind? So let’s go out and stand in the wind—or chase it. Let’s grab big armfuls of wind—if that’s where the answer lies. Now take your load of wind inside and unravel and inspect it. There’s your answer to it all. What is it? Zero—absolutely nothing! Absolute meaninglessness!
Added to this sad perspective are some more very sad personal memories. While finishing up some requirements before my college graduation, I was doing some work at the Seattle Public Library (1967) and happened into a High School classmate. I forget what he was heading for in life, but I do remember a comment he made when he learned I had shifted from the University of Washington to a Bible college (Northwest College) and was about to graduate with an obscure sense that God may be leading me to pursue some engagement in missionary ministries. Since I had brought up the idea of God and Bible, he volunteered his related judgment that his favorite book in the Bible was Ecclesiastes. Do you realize what that means? I didn’t understand then as well as I do now. But he was announcing to me his gnawing emptiness. He was embracing a piece of Biblical literature with which he most resonated. His life was merely an accidental event of meaninglessness. I learned years later that he actually followed through with that perspective—and ended his life in suicide. Very sad. But, on the other hand, if our existence and purpose is just meaningless chasing of the wind, why not?
For the life of me, I cannot come up with a more positive reason for living—a more invigorating purpose—than to get my naturally confused and dirty little heart and head wrapped around the Gospel perspective that my Maker really does love me and desires relationship with me. Toward that wonderful mind-boggling end He has established some simple easy-to-understand terms—seek Him, believe Him, love Him, trust Him, and agree with His prescription that herein is my purpose. Bingo! Please repeat after me—MY PURPOSE FOR BEING IS TO PLEASE HIM.