If God’s Not in It…It’s Meaningless!!!

So, one day I picked up the bible one day and seriously started studying and decided to turn to Ecclesiastes. Even though there are twelve chapters, it was the first two talks about King Solomon at a much older state. Solomon, who considered himself a teacher, begins to look back on his life and realizes as he teaches both himself and others that everything in the end is meaningless. You see, Solomon acquired a lot of knowledge and wealth. He was a ruler at the time when Israel was in the Golden Age. What Solomon understood at this state was that not all the tangible items. He learned that everything one day will disappear. We are born with nothing and we leave with nothing. But in gaining wealth and power, Solomon learned that all of it is meaningless and doesn’t bring happiness because God is not involved in obtaining those things. The point of everything that Solomon is saying is that gaining all these things are meaningless. That includes all earthly possessions and accomplishments and only God brings true satisfaction and happiness to ones own life.

He, Solomon, had to be self-reflective of his life to find out what truly matters to him. In fact, Solomon challenges everyone that he teaches to find their meaning through God and not through things one acquires. As you think about this, the more you understand or knowledge that you may acquire, the more hardship you may come across. In other words you start to see more negative things around you in everyday life. For example, in this day in age everyone needs or should have a solid education. Without one, there is a solid chance that you will not go as far as you want to in life. Now, of course, there are other ways to make it (such as journeymen program). But for the most part, if you don’t have some type of education, you will get left in life. That said, when a person gets education, you come to realize the troubles of the world around you. I mean, you see the good but you also see the bad as well. As the story moves on in Ecclesiastes, verses 16 to 18 finds Solomon realizes that there is two types of wisdom which is human knowledge and the knowledge that comes from God. Human knowledge only highlights our issues, like looking at things from a negative prospective. In a nutshell, when Solomon talks about all the things he acquired in his life, he considers this all “chasing in the wind” meaning once we have it, we can’t keep it or hold on to it.

So…what am I trying to say all of this? We try so hard to try to find meaning, understanding, and happiness through the everyday work, in things, and anything else that we ever come across on Earth. Earthly things do not please God and while they are nice things to have, they shouldn’t please you. Why? because the things of this world mean nothing and they have no real value especially when you are gone from this earth. Also, God created us in his image, so why is it that in today’s society, we get consumed and overflowed with things that we don’t need because?

Putting material things ahead of God

Like so many other people of this world, I managed to get confuse what I wanted for me instead of what God wanted for me. Many times he has bless me and many times I took that blessing somewhere else because that specific blessing was not made for another purpose but what I asked for. And sometimes we just go ahead and get things that we have no business obtaining. Let me give you a story about me. A few years ago I bought a 2009 Dodge Charger SXT. Me and my wife one night got free tickets to see the movie at that time “Fast Five” which was the fifth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise. One of the main attractions at the movie theater as well as in the movie was the new 2011 Dodge Charger and there were several different styles. Well…I was so engulfed by how the car looked that I wanted it that bad. Well, one Sunday, I had this big argument with my wife over possibly getting the car. I ended up leaving the house mad because I didn’t feel she saw my point at all. I was out pretty much the day but I ended up driving by a dealership that had the car I wanted. By the time the sun went down, I drove off the lot with a 2011 Dodge Charger Rally Edition which had 18″ wheels, a sunroof, a spoiler, and a paint color on it called “blackberry pearl”. Now, if you haven’t picked up on it yet, I had no business buying this car. But Got has a way of disciplining us. For starters, I had to shell out more money than what I originally thought which meant our savings was gone. Another problem I faced was that my payments went up $150 too. If that was already about, I had to pay for many replacement tires because I constantly kept getting flats including two rear flat tires before I ended up getting rid of it. Also, I had a few bugs and technical glitches as well but the one that took the cake was when I walked out to my car to go to work one morning and found out that my car was sitting on brick and that the tires and rims were gone off the car. The total cost of that was roughly around $5,000 to replace. Personally, I believe this was God’s way of saying “not only does this not please me, but you weren’t suppose to get this in the first place.

To be blunt, I regret buying that car. I think I was more concerned about looking stylish than anything else and quite honestly that was dumb. The experience not only taught me a lesson (like don’t buy a car without your wife’s permission) but also it taught me that things of the earthly world mean absolutely nothing if it is not pleasing to God…NOTHING. Solomon not only learned on his own but he tried to tell so many other people who so many things of this world is meaningless. Try reflecting on your past life and while moving forward, find out what in your life is pleasing to God because God should be first in your life. Everything you want and need he has, it’s a simple matter of always keeping him first.