Over the Sun

At our church, Grace Bible Church, we're going through a Sunday morning series from the book of Ecclesiastes (I think I've referenced this before). It's profound and attacks the very meaning of life itself - man's ultimate quandary to define existence and find a purpose. Henry David Thoreau (a great 19th Century essayist, poet and philosopher) once poignantly said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." His was not a divine revelation, but it resonates nonetheless with Solomon's when he penned in His book of Ecclesiastes (meaning the "gatherer", the "assembler") these words, "I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind." (Chapter 1, Verse 14) If this were the end of the story, then man's existence is pathetic and hopeless, and in the end we all go to the grave like a painted clown.

While on one of my worship runs the other day (with iPod in tow) I happened to hear upon a song written by one of my favorite "go-to" Christian bands of late, Shane & Shane. The song perfectly pinpoints these deep pondering thoughts with a melody that helps me to remember that I am no longer "under the sun". Rather, I am over the sun in the Son, Jesus. Therefore I need not be, nor am I, one of Thoreau's singers that dies in quiet desperation. No, I am among the redeemed that will go to the grave singing a different song, one that resonates with the lyrics found in this one (click and listen, if you wish):

I write about this, as I do many reflective thoughts, because life, my life and your life, does not have to be a vanity of vanities or chasing after the wind. God has given us many means by which to point us toward the Source of the wind. They're all around us, enveloped in life itself. I would not know there is purpose beyond vanity but for God pointing a bright light in my face as I gazed into a vanity mirror (figuratively) to show me that life is not at all about me. Left to my own devices, I do indeed die in a life of masquerade. The masquerade is that my life is enough, and that I need none other. That's deceitful, because what I need is life outside of life, and that life cannot be found inside of this life. The only one that can give me that is the Giver of life, both in the here and in the hereafter.

Victoria and I are at a precipice of life right now. We're asking ourselves some hard questions. Surely our age has a lot to do with it, but more assuredly God's Spirit has everything to do with it. We find ourselves dissatisfied with life as we've known it - the good American dream that is. We don't loathe or condemn it, but as Victoria recently said to me, "The weight of the world is crushing." I'm not sure we're strong enough on our own to rise up against it and live at the same time in the midst of it. Victoria said, "Maybe we just need to sell everything." Maybe. That's what Jesus told the rich young ruler he must do, not to gain life, but to receive life because what he possessed blocked what he could not possess on his own (cf. Mark 10: 17-52). Victoria and I have life, but He's brought us to our senses that what He said was true, "You cannot serve both God and Money." (Matthew 6:24c)

I almost hate to write about these things because Victoria and I have had so many false starts. But if I don't write about them then they remain private and too easy to hide behind, as if they never rose to our senses in the first place. So for now we're committing every Monday to intense prayer, devotion and sacrifice to God (Victoria's idea, and a good one at that). We're praying that in living over the sun in the Son that He might do the possible with what seems so impossible to us right now, whatever that is.

Thank you for reading my stream of consciousness thought. Believe it or not, I'm actually at a better place with Jesus than I've ever been.

Living Over the Sun,