Kicked Over Ant Hills

I sat at a red light in downtown during the lunch hour. The drivers were impatient at the wait and you could almost feel their stress oozing out of the cars. Perhaps oozing isn't the right word, perhaps throbbing is better.

The pedestrians were so intent on getting to their destinations that they didn't even notice one another. They moved like mindless robots, set on high speed heading for unknown destinations.

The whole scene reminded me of the scurrying that goes on when an ant hill is kicked over. Everywhere you look, ants are frantically trying to figure out what happened and what they're supposed to do about it. Unlike us, they have a reason to be frantic when it happens. Surely we're smarter than ants. Aren't we?

We've given our lives over to a lie. More, bigger, faster, better and we'll all be happy and able to relax.

We spend our whole lives working for retirement only to find out that when (or if) we get there, we don't know what it means to have a life or how to live one.

We value property over people. Resources over relationships. Treasure over time. We've become all askew. We've got it backwards.

Things and power never satisfy.

It's nothing new, although I do believe it is getting worse. King Solomon tried it and found that it didn't work.

All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:8-9 NIV

Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them? Ecclesiastes 5:10-11 NIV

He pursued pleasure, work, knowledge, all of the "isms" of his day and more and none of them satisfied. He came to one conclusion at the end of it all.

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13 NIV

A profound verse. To me, what's even more profound is the fact that the earliest of manuscripts don't have the word duty. They read:

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13

People are made in the image of God and our whole being is designed for worship. It's not a duty, it's who we are. All our striving will never satisfy. The only thing that satisfies for eternity is to allow ourselves to become all God intended us to be, to walk in obedience and communion with Him.

Until next time, may you put aside your endless strivings and just walk with Father. It's what you're really looking for any way.

Be blessed

Hallelu Yah (Praise God)!

Kevin