It’s All Vanity and Vexation
You know those times when it seems the clock is barely moving? Yet, present circumstances cause you to incessantly watch that clock and wish whatever agony you are enduring would end. Kind of like during the COVID-19 pandemic, you wanted it to end and be over so that you could get back to normal? And don’t even think about extending this agony beyond which you are obligated; it has been torture enough, enduring the time that you did. Another moment more and you just might do something very irrational if you have to continue in this present state of discontent. And yet, here in the United States the numbers are rising, and we may experience a second wave. You get the picture.
There is something to be said about the lack of patience and the inability to endure hardness or anything unpleasant. If this pandemic has got you going out of your head, it does not take much to rattle your cage and that’s not good. Thankfully, everything has an end…everything.
But what if there was no end to that agony? What if it became eternal, a place of eternity? The Bible tells us King Solomon was the wisest man to ever live: 1 Kings 4 :29-34 (NKJV) And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men—than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
Not to mention he was one of, if not, the most wealthiest . And yet, in all his wisdom and wealth, at the end of his days, just before the grave, he came to the conclusion and very realization, that all of his wisdom, wealth, and earthly possessions were: Ecclesiastes 1:10-17 (KJV ) Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after. I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
Know this: The back of the airplane arrives at the same time as the front of the airplane The Jalopy will get you from point A to point B just as the luxury vehicle will as well The belly is still full on porridge and bread as it is on the finer delicacies Burial in a cedar wood box or a fine elegant casket, the body is still dead and will not know of either, which it is laid to rest in…Nor will it matter.
When it is all said and done, material things are just that - material, and when we retire to the grave, it all becomes immaterial to us because we surely cannot take it with us. If our ancestors from the grave could come back, they would surely tell us all, "live your purpose in Christ while on Earth, because I am where I am now, because I did/did not. " Do not get caught up in having and acquiring material things and status; instead, get caught up in eternity and being about Our Father’s business.
Stay Blessed Beloved, Apostle Wendy Connor
Copyright © 2020 Wendy Connor
