Ecclesiastes // Chasing MeaningSample

After my second year in seminary, my wife, Lori, and I had a great experience working at a church outside of Aberdeen, Scotland. The summer was spent doing evangelism, small group teaching, meeting with various groups at the church, and preaching on Sunday mornings. On days off, we would pack a lunch and jump in our little red Mini to investigate the beautiful countryside. We stopped at several castles to explore and imagine what life would have been like nine hundred years before we arrived.

The castles were amazing structures strategically located to ensure safety and protection. The walls around the castles were fortified with rock six to ten feet thick, as were the castle walls themselves. No one, it seemed, could penetrate the walls or the castles. But at some point, an army or disease found a way inside and wiped out the castle communities. Nothing man builds or does lasts forever. But with God, things are different.

Ecclesiastes 3:14

I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.

While we live and work in time, God works outside of it. He is the eternal God who does all things perfectly. Nothing can be added or taken away to make what he has done better. Everything he does lasts forever. God’s construction cannot be destroyed. That fact alone should cause us to bow before him in honor, love, respect, and obedience. The God who builds things with an eternal guarantee knows how to build our lives for endurance and strength all the way to eternity. Jesus transforms our fragile lives to endure forever.

Father, don’t let me trust in things that rot, rust, and decay. Don’t let me spend my life building things that won’t last. Help me to fear you—to love, respect, honor, and obey you—so that what I do today will count for tomorrow. In Jesus’ name. Amen.