You Can't Dribble a Football

 

 

            You can't dribble a football - why? It was not designed for that purpose. You were not designed to serve yourself. You were designed to serve and worship God.

 

            But serving and worshipping God in this physical world can cause confusion. Why? Because we live in a physical world and there are demands.

 

            When Adam and Eve sinned and were expelled from the garden, they left feeling a sense of shame and guilt. They left, being separated from the Tree of Life. They left having to work harder and in more painful ways - both to have a family and to support that family. Ecclesiastes is "wisdom" literature, designed to tell us how to live, being weak and mortal.

 

            The theme of the book of Ecclesiastes is identified in 1:2 - "vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities! All is vanity." Observe also the phrase - "striving after wind" (vs 14) - "It is a phrase that expresses frustration; it describes the pursuit of something that is futile" (Dave Bland, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes & Song of Songs, 315).

 

            There is a great deal - or seems to be - of skepticism in the book. The author seems to suggest that you work and work and work and it is all pointless - all is vanity and striving after wind. We are all going down the road and we can't stop ourselves, we can't get off the merry-go-'round - death is the final result and it happens to everyone. All is pointless.

 

            But Solomon also tells us how to live life with a purpose. In 3:12-14, he says everything God does remains forever. What is done in the name of God and for God is what lasts forever. According to 5:7, there is emptiness in dreams but we should "Fear God."

 

          What is Solomon's message for teenagers looking to get prepared for life and be successful in life? His point is to seek God above all. Life is a gift from God and should be used in service to God.  Listen to his words from 12:1, 7-8, 13-14.

 

          Where is the center of your life? Solomon would say make sure your life is centered in and grounded in God. "[L]et your whole perspective on life be informed by the view that God is creator of everything" (Craig Bartholomew and Ryan P. O'Dowd. Old Testament Wisdom Literature: A Theological Introduction, 204). When you are serving God, you are serving the purpose for which you were created.

--Paul Holland