king solomon

Under the Sun: The Poverty of Just a Little More

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“Throughout this experiment, I let myself have anything my eyes desired, and I did not withhold from my mind any pleasure. What was the conclusion? My mind found joy in all the work I did—my work was its own reward! As I continued musing over all I had accomplished and the hard work it took, I concluded that all this, too, was fleeting, like trying to embrace the wind. Is there any real gain by all our hard work under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, The Voice)

King Solomon tried and failed. Most of us will try and fail. We will seek to find our identity and fulfillment with anything under the sun and not find it.

If your identity is from making money, you will never have enough. You will always need just a little more to be happy.

If your identity is in possessions and status, you will always be striving for the next big purchase, the next big promotion, the next big . . . you get the idea.

If your identity is in your relationships, the other person will never be able to live up to your expectations. Whether its your spouse or your children, they can never come close to being able to define and complete you.

Nothing finite can fill the infinite gap that exists inside of each of us. Only the Infinite can do that. Only God can do that. Only God can be big enough to build your identity on and find completeness in.

Solomon found out through experience over his long life that anything under the sun, while good and well in and of itself, made for a poor replacement for God. His assessment at the end of His life? Have a healthy reverence for God and do what pleases Him– let your identity be in Him.

 

True Wisdom

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“Reverence for the Eternal, the one True God, is the beginning of wisdom; true knowledge of the Holy One is the start of understanding” (Proverbs 9:10, VOICE).

This is it. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, or as this version puts it, reverence and awe for God are the beginning of wisdom.

These days, there is a lot of knowledge and a scarcity of wisdom. You can know a lot of facts about a lot of things and it not do you much good. Wisdom is what you do with what you know.

For me, wisdom begins when I admit that I don’t know much. Wisdom happens when I confess that I know a lot less than I thought I did at one point.

The Bible also says that if any of you lack wisdom, let that person ask God, who gives it generously. So maybe I should ask for it more.

I think wisdom starts when I make a declaration of dependence. It’s me acknowledging that  I don’t have all the answers, that I am not Mr. With-It, and that I need help most days. I need God’s help every day.

Ultimately, wisdom is knowing that it’s not about me at all. It’s ultimately about God and what He’s doing in the world.

Wisdom is knowing that failure and mistakes can actually be a good thing if they lead to changed behavior and more of a desperation for God to act on our behalf. Wisdom knows that failure is never fatal but the courage to continue is what counts (one Mr. Churchill also said that a while back).

So I’m praying for wisdom, which is one of the smartest decisions that King Solomon ever made. Marrying all those foreign women? Not so much. Asking for wisdom? You can never ever go wrong with that.

 

What Do You Want?

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At Kairos tonight, Mike Glenn posed this question: Suppose God shows up in front of you and asks you want you want, no limits and no restrictions. What would you ask for?

The Bible relates that happening to King Solomon. He could have asked for the death of his enemies or vast wealth. He probably didn’t need any more wives, so I imagine that wasn’t an option.

He chose wisdom.

What would you choose? What would I choose?

I want my answer to be as much of God as I can handle. I remember the verse in Matthew that says to seek first the Kingdom of God and all His righteousness, and everything else will be added.

That’s not saying that I will strike it rich or that a fabulously wealthy uncle that I’ve never heard of will kick the bucket and leave his gazillions to me. That’s saying that I will get what I need when I need it.

My growing desire these days is to hunger and thirst after God more than anything else. Before you start thinking how super-spiritual I am, let me rephrase that statement. I want to want to hunger and thirst after God more than anything else.

Happiness fades. As soon as I’ve found what I think will make me happy, the feeling wears off.

I want joy. I want the kind of joy that comes from being grounded in the truth of who Jesus is and who I am in Christ. I want joy that outlasts seasons of happiness and sadness, sunshine and rain (now you’re probably humming that song from the early 90’s), bliss and pain.

I want to be able to say (and mean it) that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away and my joy is the same, regardless.

What a lost world needs to see isn’t happy Christians, but believers so full of joy that nothing and no one can touch or take away. May we be so full of the joy and love of Christ that it can’t help but spill out onto those around us who need it.