Vanity of Vanities
Anything we strive for in terms of the world will dissappear.
I reckon all of humanity has a deep need to live on - we are immortal beings in terms of who we really are (our spirits/souls). And so we all build our own empires to be remembered by - we build our lives to have the greatest impact possible in our fleeting worlds.
But really - how many people can we remember? How many people can you name who lived just the century before last? I personally could count the number on my hands. A maximum of ten people that I remember!
People build into different worlds - artists want to be remembered by creating the perfect creation/song, intellectuals by their theories/philosophies/discoveries. 'People' people want to be remembered in the lives that they impact, a lot of the time 'holy' people want to be remembered by others as how well they dedicated their lives to their god/gods/religion.
But all of this is vanity.
We need to strive for something, to live by something that will last, that has substance. And that cannot be anything of our own creation.
"What does anyone gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises...
...There is no remembrance of people of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them."
-Ecclesiastes 1
posted by Jakes @ 9:18 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Yeah bro!
I've just listened to a sermon on the doctrine of hell. Kind of scared me, but in a good way y'no? Basically gave me a good kick in the pants. I'll lend it to you sometime.
In other news, it sounds like Switchfoot are getting good again, I really like the Oh! Gravity song. It's all happy and Beautiful Letdownish again.
And I can understand that Pie. I guess I was just pointing out the vanity of trying to make ourselves a name amongst others for the sake of immortality.
If this life IS all we have, it's completely reasonable that we enjoy it for what it is.
But I don't believe that. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but putting aside my knowledge (put that in inverted commas if you wish) of God and how He has interacted with humanity and His love, plan and (potential?) purpose for everyone, I know that I have this yearning/expectation to live on after I die.
Death into complete annihilation seems unnatural, alien and strange - I feel that I am meant to live for ever. Call this wishful thinking or conditioned upbringing, but I am a being that is meant to last for ever.
If there is no ultimate meaning/purpose, than I see no more reasonable purpose for us than to enjoy this apparant mess as much as we possibly can:
"...And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,
'Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.'"
-1 Corinthians 15
(That whole chapter is worth reading - Paul addressing an early church where they didn't believe in the ressurection of the dead)
Oh my gooood ears
Switchfoots new stuff is rad to the days.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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