Livin Lively

By Peggy Lively

            There have been a few times in my life when I was certain I was being led by the Holy Spirit in a specific direction, when all of a sudden I found myself seemingly at a dead end.  During these times, I had really sought God through prayer and reading the Bible and then followed where I believed He was leading me. But the road either suddenly ended or did not take me where I was sure I was going. It’s been times like these when I have questioned whether I have “heard” Him or been led by His Spirit at all.

            When I begin to doubt His Spirit’s leading (or my ability to hear Him), I always go back to John 10. Jesus tells us, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—“ (John 10:14) He reminds us, “When he [the good shepherd] has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” (John 10:4) And again, He says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27) These verses always encourage me that if I am seeking God, through prayer and reading His Word, then I will hear Him speak to my heart, and He will lead me by His Spirit. Anne Graham Lotz describes, “For some, hearing Him speak is like a quiet knowing. For others, it’s more electric—as though the verses had bells, whistles, and flashing neon lights. Regardless of how His voice ‘sounds’ to you, the impact will be like fuel that keeps the fire burning in your heart.” (I Saw the Lord, p. 195)

             I have learned though that just because I hear Him speak through His Word and I follow Him, that doesn’t always mean I am going to end up where I think I should. Even Jesus was led by the Sprit to a place I would have never expected.

            When Jesus lived on this earth, He was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” (Matthew 4:1, NKJV) Really? The Holy Spirit intentionally led Jesus into temptation? The same Jesus that taught us to pray, “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one?” (Matthew 6:13) Certainly there has to be an eternal purpose for this strange leading.

            Hebrews 2:18 says, “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” And Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” As usual, God had us in mind when He was leading His Son. Jesus was tempted in every way, just as we are, so that He could sympathize with us and help us!

            Through His life, as a man, Jesus also had to learn to trust and obey His Father. “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” (Hebrews 5:7-9) Jesus had to trust His Father that through His obedience in going to the cross and suffering for our sins, He would become the source of our salvation.

            We can see that purpose for Jesus, but it is so difficult in our own lives sometimes to see any good that could possibly come out of intense suffering. Like Jesus though, we must learn to trust and obey our Heavenly Father.

            So sometimes, when we are led by God’s Spirit, it might not be our destination that is what’s important. It may be that we are supposed to learn some lessons along the journey, like trust and obedience. So the next time it seems like you have come to a dead end, you’ve ended up in the wilderness, or you’re going through intense suffering, remember Jesus has been there too. He understands, and He can help you. Then ask God what it is you’re suppose to be learning, put your faith in Him, and trust that His plans have a purpose.

“A man’s steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?” (Proverbs 20:24)

By Peggy Lively

            At the conclusion of our Church’s Vacation Bible School, we had a family celebration service on Sunday morning focusing on what the children had learned during the week. The preschool children had learned a new song with hand motions, so they all went up on stage to sing for us.

            As they began to sing and move their arms with the words, there were a few of them that lost their focus. They had caught sight of the big screen behind them that was zoomed in on them on the stage. They were so mesmerized with looking at themselves, that they froze and completely missed out on their performance.

            As I watched this, I thought about how easy it is for us to focus on ourselves and forget what our purpose is. We can get so distracted with our needs, our problems, and our agenda that we forget our focus should be on Jesus. Even Jesus’ disciples lost perspective at times by focusing on themselves. We see this happen to John in a passage of scripture that is particularly funny to me.

            Peter and John had just been told by Mary Magdalene that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb; the tomb was empty! So the men took off running to see the tomb for themselves. As you read these verses, keep in mind that the “other disciple” is John, and he is writing this:

“Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.” (John 20:4-8)

            John is writing about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the empty tomb! Yet he finds it necessary to let us know 3 times in 5 verses that he outran Peter to the tomb. (I can hear my children saying, “I got there first!”) I’m not sure if he wanted us to know he was a faster runner than Peter or if he just wanted credit for being the first disciple to get to the tomb. Whichever it was, he got a little sidetracked from the main thing by focusing on himself.

            John wasn’t the only disciple that got distracted by focusing on himself. In another passage of scripture we read: “[The disciples] came to Capernaum. When [Jesus] was in the house, he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.” (Mark 9:33-34) The disciples were walking with Jesus, the only perfect man to live on this earth. But they chose to distance themselves from Him just enough so that they could discuss which of them was the greatest.

            It is a little comforting to know that we are in good company with Jesus’ disciples when we get too focused on ourselves. Sometimes we don’t even realize we are doing it. Because it isn’t always self-pride and self-promotion. Sometimes it can come in the form of self-pity or self-defeat. But whenever we become self-centered, we lose sight of following Jesus and loving others around us. So whether we struggle with self-righteousness or self-contempt, both can easily distract us from our purpose. Instead of looking at ourselves, let’s look to Jesus.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

By Peggy Lively

            Three weeks ago, we celebrated my twelve year old son’s birthday with several of his friends at our house. They were having a great time playing badmitten, basketball and ping pong until…

            My husband and I challenged the boys to play us two on two in basketball. After we won about five games, I think they began to realize that these old people weren’t too bad after all. On the sixth game, I was guarding one of my son’s friends when he swung his head around quickly and forcefully landing it right in the middle of my nose. My husband and I both heard it crack and one look in the mirror told me it was broken.

            Fortunately, this happened at the end of the party so parents were already coming to pick up their children. My husband took me to the ER as I buried my nose and face in an ice pack. I was so worried about what my nose would look like, having surgery to fix it, or it just being crooked forever. As we entered the ER, I kept my nose covered with the ice embarrassed for anyone else to see it.

            Thankfully, we hadn’t waited long when the receptionist called me back to the triage area. As the hospital staff took my vital signs, they asked me what happened, and I told them. The man that was a physician’s assistant said they would take me back to get some x-rays even though we already knew my nose was broken since it was “visually deformed.” Let me just say, those are two words that no woman wants said about anything on her face. So as I sat and waited to be taken to x-ray, those words just kept playing over and over in my mind. And I wondered if my “visually deformed” was fixable.

            After I went to x-ray and was on the way back to my room, I passed someone on the other side of the hall. The best way I can describe the way he looked is frightening. He was very pale and had white, disheveled hair. The bottom lids of his eyes were red as if he had not slept in a long time, and on his right arm was an artificial limb with a metal hook on the end of it. And I noticed that he was wearing scrubs. At first glance, I was taken aback by his appearance, and then my next thought was, “Surely he doesn’t work here. He will scare the patients.” But as soon as I had thought this, the Lord brought to my mind, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7) Then all of a sudden, my nose didn’t seem so important anymore.

            This experience brought me to the Bible and what it says about beauty in the eyes of God. It says, “Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands…” (I Peter 3:1-5)

            There are three things I found in this passage that I call “inner beauty tips.” First, the passage of scripture begins and ends instructing wives to be submissive to their husbands. I have to admit that when I think of beauty (physical or spiritual), “being submissive” is not what comes to my mind. But the Bible says that this is one of the ways the holy women of the past made themselves beautiful.

            Second, these verses say that beauty comes from a gentle and quiet spirit. Physical beauty is going to fade, but the Bible says that a gentle and quiet spirit has unfading beauty and is “of great worth in God’s sight.” We tend to put our worth in our works or our good deeds for God. But it is a gentle and quiet spirit that has great worth in His sight.

            Third, the holy women of the past made themselves beautiful when they “put their hope in God.” We are instructed to submit to our husbands, but we cannot put our hope in them. They are human and will let us down. We cannot put our hope in physical beauty, because eventually it will fade. And we cannot put our hope in our good deeds because they will never be good enough.

            Our hope in God is the only hope that will never disappoint. “Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” (Isaiah 49:23) “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:5)

            So it is possible to have unfading beauty. It just looks a lot different than what the world tells us.

By Peggy Lively

            When I was new to Facebook, I received a message from a good friend of mine that had a video attached to it. The message said, “Is that really you in this video? Wow! That’s interesting.” So my curiosity was peaked, and I tried to download the video to see what was on it. (Some of you already know where this is going.) Well, I didn’t download a video; I downloaded a computer virus. And the really frustrating part was that when I downloaded it, the “video” was then sent out to my friends on Facebook as a message from me. So the virus just got passed on and on…to and from friends, people you knew and trusted.

            As computer viruses do, it didn’t affect just my Facebook account. It affected every part of my computer. It literally shut down the whole thing. And I got messages from friends saying the same thing happened to them.

            Our sin is a lot like a computer virus, and it entered the world in a similar way. In the Garden of Eden, Satan asked Eve a question that peaked her curiosity, prompted her to act, and then unfortunately passed sin on. His question started like this: “Did God really say…?”

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’   

‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Genesis 3:1-6)

          When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, it didn’t just affect them and the Garden of Eden. It affected all of creation and humanity. I have heard people say that it isn’t fair that we inherited this sinful nature, but a virus (computer or otherwise) is not fair. Its nature is to infect and destroy. That sounds like another verse in the Bible: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” (John 10:10) So no, sin isn’t fair, just like a virus or a thief isn’t “fair.” It is just the nature of the beast. (literally)

          The Good News though is that there is a remedy for this virus! It is called God’s grace and forgiveness through His son, Jesus Christ: “Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses e and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:16-19)

          So even though we are infected and tempted by sin, we don’t have to be controlled or destroyed by it, because we have a Savior. His remedy for us is grace…grace that is greater than all our sin.

“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 6:11 

By Peggy Lively

            A couple of weeks ago, my husband was explaining to our children what it means for their “reputation to precede them,” and he was challenging them to have a good reputation with teachers, coaches and other parents. He told them how quickly they can become defined by others as a result of their attitudes and actions, whether good or bad.

            I thought back on this conversation as I read about one of my favorite people in the Bible, Stephen. In Acts, we read repeatedly about the type of reputation that Stephen had.

            In Acts 6, Jesus’ twelve disciples were enlisting seven men to help them take care of the widows. The disciples said that these helpers should be men, “who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.” (verse 3) Verse 5 says, “This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” Then in verse 8, it says, “Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.” And again in Acts 7:55, “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” Stephen is consistently defined as a man who was full of faith, wisdom and the Spirit of God.

            When people mention your name what words do they use to define you:

Friendly or unkind? Generous or greedy?

Serving or self-centered? Full of grace or unforgiving?

Joyful or bitter? Proud or humble?

Hardworking or lazy? Genuine or deceptive?

Do they describe you as one who is full of faith, wisdom and God’s Spirit?         

            I pray that I might have a reputation like Stephen’s. And remember, the goal in having a good reputation is not to impress people but to reflect the character of Jesus. 

Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold. (Proverbs 22:1, NLT)

By Peggy Lively

            My husband and I decided to join in on one of the latest exercise crazes, the P90X extreme home fitness program. The exercise videos target different muscle groups each day, and involves a lot of repetitive lifting of hand held weights. Instead of weights, however, you can use resistant bands when doing these exercises.

            These bands resist any movement away from their original source, so they pull back on the muscles as you try to move away. It is the repetitive working against this force that tones the muscles you are using.

            I read Hosea 11:4, I immediately thought about these resistance bands. It says, “I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them.”

            God’s love is like these bands. It resists any movement away from Him and gently pulls us back to Him when we begin to move away. His love is a perfect, unconditional and irresistible love. Nothing can separate us from it: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

            I often wonder, does my love reflect His? I know that most of the time it does not. But if I abide in His love, my love should begin to look more and more like His. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) As His love draws us closer to Him, our love should also gently pull others, not closer to us, but closer to our Savior. “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (I John 4:10, NLT) Share this real love with someone today.

            Don’t resist God’s bands of love; let them draw you closer to Him. Then by living and responding in His love, draw others closer to Him as well.

By Peggy Lively 

            Getting creative with dinnertime can be challenging, especially during baseball season. During this season, a lot of our dinners end up being either a drive thru or a crock pot meal. So in an effort to limit the drive thru, I looked up some new recipes for my crock pot.

            After finding one that I thought all of my children would like, I bought the ingredients and went to work. I started cutting up and throwing all the ingredients in the crock pot, not really in any particular order: rice, chicken, butter, onion…etc. I assumed that was all I needed to do, just put everything in the crock pot and then let it cook for 5 or 6 hours. So after I put all the ingredients in, I decided to read the directions.

            I found out that the melted butter was supposed to go in first before everything else and coat the rice. The diced chicken was supposed to have already been cooked before putting it in the crock pot. And the green onion wasn’t even supposed to go in the crock pot. It was only for on top of the dish once it was finished cooking. So I tried to fish out most of the green onion, and then convinced myself that everything else would be ok.

            Well, it wasn’t ok. Nobody in my family liked the meal, and then I was frustrated with them for not eating it. I was upset that I had wasted my time, money and food.

            If I am honest though, had I read the directions, it might have been ok. I had all the right ingredients, but I was mistaken in what I thought I was supposed to do with them.

            Sometimes we can do this in our spiritual lives as well. We know all the main ingredients: Jesus loves me, He died for my sins, and if I ask Him for forgiveness and accept Him as my Savior, I am saved and will go to Heaven. These are the main ingredients of our faith, and they are essential for our Salvation. However, if we understand and believe these things, sometimes we might assume this is all we need to know. So we take these main ingredients and just try to live our lives the way we think we are supposed to. We don’t stop and take time to read the directions (God’s Word) for more specific instructions on how to live.

            David says in Psalm 119, “Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.” (verse 35) And again he says, “Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.” (verse 133) God can’t direct us according to His Word if we don’t read it. He doesn’t want us just assuming how to live a life that pleases Him and brings us joy. He says, “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.” (Isaiah 48:17) We need to read His Word daily and follow His instructions, so He can lead us in the life that is best for us.

            Don’t rush through your day without reading His directions, or it may turn out like my dinner.

 ”Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”    (Psalm 25:4-5)

By Peggy Lively

            Do you have people in your life that are challenging to get along with? It doesn’t matter how hard you try to be kind to them, they just seem to thrive on disagreeing with you, debating you, or just plain making your life difficult.

            Isaac had some people in his life like this. The Lord had blessed Isaac with an abundance of crops, flocks and herds. “His wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.” (Genesis 26:13-14) And this is where his trouble began.

            The Philistines became so jealous of Isaac, that they began to stop up the wells that his father, Abraham, had dug. They filled up the wells with dirt so that Isaac and his people could not use them. Then, Abimelech, King of the Philistines, told Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.” (Genesis 26:16) So Isaac did as the king requested and moved away from them. Then he re-opened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father, which had been stopped up by the Philistines. But every time Isaac dug up a new well, the Philistines would claim it as their own. He kept moving and digging, and they kept claiming.

“The Philistines had stopped up the wells after the death of Abraham.  Each time Isaac reopened a well they claimed it for themselves, even though they had not been using it.  They were just being contentious.  But Isaac kept moving on till he entered an area where the Philistines no longer contested his right to the water…It’s difficult to like such people, but Jesus went so far as to say that we must love them, pray for them, and be good to them (Matthew 5:44).  It may not be easy, and those ornery persons may not change. Yet, according to Romans 12:18, we must still do all we can to live peacefully with everyone.”   -Herb Vander Lugt, “Our Daily Bread” (5/1/2004)

            The root of the Philistines’ attitude toward Isaac was jealousy. They wanted to do whatever they could to keep him from thriving. This may be what motivates those difficult people in your life, or it may be that they are simply unhappy with their own life, so they don’t want others to be happy either. Whatever the underlying cause, Jesus calls us to love them, pray for them, and do everything we can to live in peace with them. “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18)

            Is there someone in your life that you need to respond to with peace? Responding in peace doesn’t mean that you are saying, “I am wrong.” Isaac had every right to his own wells, but he continued to move and dig new ones in order to keep the peace. “Make every effort to live in peace with all men…” (Hebrews 12:14)

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

By Peggy Lively

            I have a hamper in the corner of my laundry room that holds only the clothes that need to be ironed. Anything that comes out of the dryer that needs to be ironed gets stashed in there, and usually ends up going to the cleaners. Because I try to avoid ironing as much as possible, the hamper stays pretty empty and I don’t open it very often.

            One day as I went to put something in the hamper, I discovered three pair of dirty underwear stuffed down in the clothes. My youngest son had tried to hide  the evidence of an accident, several times. Apparently the underwear had been in there for a while, so now it was necessary to wash all the other clothes in the hamper as well, because of the smell.

            A few days after this discovery, this same son had a late baseball game and was given a big Gatorade to drink after the game at 9:00. Since he is usually in bed by 8:30, I knew this was trouble. I knew he wasn’t capable of drinking this late and making it through the night. So I fully expected an accident, and even prepared the bed  to protect it.

            Sure enough the next morning, he was wet. As I stripped the bed and picked up the wet PJ’s, I was missing the underwear. I went downstairs and asked him if he had changed his underwear, and he assured me that he had. So I asked him, “Then where is your dirty underwear?” And he said, “I changed it.” I asked again, “I know, but where is your dirty underwear?” He said, “I’ll go get it,” and started to head upstairs. I followed him and asked, “Where did you put it?”

            When we got upstairs, he just looked at me and said, “I’ll get it and bring it down to the laundry room.” Getting frustrated with his avoidance of my question, I insisted that he tell me where he put it. So he finally confessed, “In the trash can.”

            To avoid embarrassment or shame, he had hidden it under the trash in his bathroom trash can. What baffled me was that I already knew he had wet the bed; the evidence was all in the bed. So hiding the underwear was futile. I had even expected him to wet the bed, so there was no surprise to me there.

            I explained to him that he cannot hide his dirty underwear or it will really begin to stink, but that he needs to tell me about it and bring it to me so I can wash it.

             This made me think of all the times we try and hide our sin from God. We are embarrassed or ashamed, so we think we can tuck it away and not deal with it. But the truth is, if we try and hide it, after a while it’s going to really begin to stink. And eventually, like the other clothes in the hamper, it will begin affect those that are closest to us.

            God already knows about our sin. In fact, because of our sinful nature, He fully expects us to sin. So He prepared a way for forgiveness, through Jesus. We need to tell him about our sin and bring it to Him so He can wash us! “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9, KJV)

            David tried to hide his sin from God and he discovered, “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.” (Psalm 32:3-5, NLT) The Lord is ready to forgive us and cleanse us. Don’t try to hide your sin any longer. Confess it to Him and let Him free you from your guilt.

“Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22, NLT)

By Peggy Lively

            Our three year old Labrador Retriever is obsessed with chasing many things: squirrels, birds, tennis balls, and any kind of reflected light. Probably her favorite thing to chase though is a laser light. It is amazing to me that she can even see that tiny red dot, much less that she is determined to “get it.” She will chase it up and down our stairs 10-15 times or around the fence in our back yard just as many times, in hot pursuit of the little red dot.

            After watching her chase it so many times, I wonder, “Does she really not understand that she’s never going to catch it?” I mean she’s a pretty smart dog, but this makes her look ridiculous.

            It’s interesting though, because so many times in our own lives we do the same thing. We chase things in this life that we think will bring us purpose and satisfaction, but they never do. Solomon, one of the wisest men that ever lived, called it chasing after the wind. “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:14)

            Some of the things that Solomon chased after were wisdom and folly (or indiscretion). He says, “I thought to myself, ‘Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.’ Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:16-17)

            He also chased after pleasure:  “I thought in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.’ But that also proved to be meaningless.  ‘Laughter,’ I said, ‘is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?’  I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.” (Ecclesiastes 2:1-3)

            He tried chasing after work and still found no satisfaction: “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 2:17) He accomplished great projects: “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 2:11) He chased earthly riches, and concluded that this too is chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 5:10)

            Have you caught on yet that chasing after the wind is like chasing a laser light? If we are seeking to find hope and satisfaction in earthly things, it is pointless. We are never going to catch it.

            Solomon experienced this after chasing all of these things, and concluded what our purpose in life should be: “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) Solomon discovered this on his own, but he was also taught this by his father, King David, approximately 30 years before. “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.” (I Chronicles 28:9) If we seek Him, He will be found by us! That’s a promise. No more chasing laser lights.

            We find hope and peace in seeking God and obeying Him. It is in knowing Him and following Him that we grow in wisdom and understand our purpose. 

“Come near to God and He will come near to you.” James 4:8