The Saddest Thing In Life

   I was reading through Ecclesiastes and have been ruminating on this book of only a few chapters for a few days now. The theme here is the necessity of fearing God and not to despair, even when we don’t understand the happenings of our fallen and crazy world we live in. Reaching even deeper into this theme, I’ve come to realize that the saddest thing in life is living a life trying to be understood by other people. Insert social media into this and what you get is an unhealthy fight for a perceived identity, with no consideration for the consequences of how you treat people. The culmination of unwritten expectations and expected achievements has created the upmost despair in people. Just look around. 

In this book, the “vanity of life” is exclaimed countless times. This phrase captures something fleeting and elusive—like time, and what our future holds. As I’ve aged and followed into the footsteps of Jesus (and man do I fall short of Him), I’ve become painfully aware that my endeavours and life are so short here while the list of what is possible is endless. For a log time now, I’ve seen how awfully painful life is; the destruction, suffering and twisting of realities where people discard one another like a used Kleenex. All for what? We all end up in the same place, the dirt, and hopefully, some in heaven. There is something so sinister about how we go about our daily lives, complaining about anything and everything, completely ungrateful that we get another day. I really think that seeing how elections in Guelph is playing out is eating me up inside. It’s evident that we, as people, have lost our way a long time ago. This horrific reality that brutality exists, condescending behaviours because of a difference of opinion on how life should be lived, the stark rise in drug, alcohol and sexual abuse, rising costs where a decision of theft enters the chat, what else? There's a massive list of sufferings here. 

The book of Ecclesiastes was written somewhere between 935-931 B.C. or, as modern scholars would argue, between 200-300 B.C. This was even before Jesus came into the picture. The book screams a comparison of today’s time and paints an almost alarming comparison of how we are living today. In striving to just survive, the urge to condemn everyone and everything around you is how we lose hope, drive, even our souls. It’s easy to be angry and point fingers at everyone else and it’s extremely difficult to turn that finger and point it back at you. The answer to the problems we face today is individual, the phrase that comes to mind here is “no one is coming to save you” (though I might argue for one person). The utter frustration and sorrow of daily life is valid, but two things can be true at the same time and that is that you can be suffering, and still be grateful. There is joy to be found while being frustrated. There is enjoyment to be experienced even when life throws you curve balls and tries to dismantle you. 

How far we’ve fallen from hope. Now, I’ve replaced hope with God. How far we’ve fallen from what’s true and from God. We spend so much time defending what we do and who we are to each other that we’ve lost the way. I have a calling to be me, you have a calling to do you, why is it so hard to co-exist in the reality that we are equally responsible to live by a moral code of ethics, to exist with one another? Ingrained in us, is a need for hope, and that hope is found in Jesus. The moment I said fuck it, let’s give it a try, was the moment I realized that having a relationship with him was the answer to everything I was searching for. It didn’t solve my relationship problems, my fears or my suffering (and there’s lots of that) but what it did was it gave me a rock to stand on and a mirror to hold and look at myself. He gave me firm foundation for how I show up daily and it gave me an ability to face anything that comes my way head on. There’s this deep knowing inside, a conviction that I will be ok. I stay true to living out my days, God willing I get tomorrow, by tackling the mess around me, bit by bit. I get enjoyment in work and toiling through problems. I have drive and grit to try and be grateful for even the hard things that come my way. I don't give up and blame someone else. I get the choice. 

I truly believe that if we look to find the joy in everything, even the bad things happening in our life that we will meet the hope, the God, and we will a good life. Take pleasure in the prosperity when you have it and take pleasure in the failings when they come. Scream at the man above and “lament”, show gratitude to Him and praise, because that is a better alternative than screaming at each other, pointing fingers at one another online or in person. I reached my end of the rope as a skeptic, and said “fuck it” I will try this Jesus thing. Boy was I smacked upside the head with the reality that there actually is something to following his lead. 

The saddest thing in life is living to prove to others who you are and not getting to experience what life is like living to prove to Jesus who you are. That’s all that matters, focus UP, to Him, not to anyone else and you will be amazed at how your life transforms. We get one life to live on earth and it goes by so quick. When you're older, I don't want you to look back and wonder "what if". 

That's today's rant folks. Thank you for reading and I would love to hear your thoughts! 

Photo taken by my sister. We were at Revelstoke, Britich Columbia, snowboarding above the clouds.