All you have is the moment – Live it
well!
Kohelet
repeatedly reminds his listeners that “no one can fully know or understand
God’s plans.”[1] So instead of filling our lives with anxiety and vain striving in an effort to
control what is out of our hands, we ought to accept each moment as a gift from
God and act on what he has revealed to us. Each moment of our life under the
sun holds a unique and fleeting opportunity to enjoy God’s gifts. DelHousaye
and Brewer use the following illustration to convey the gist of Kohelet’s
wisdom.
Picture “a conveyor belt with one apple
passing by every twenty-four hours. Either we let it pass because we think
there may be a better one coming, or we let it pass because we are distracted
by previous ones we’ve enjoyed. Meanwhile, the one apple right in front of you
passes untouched and “unenjoyed.” People are usually
divided into three categories: Those who only know how to enjoy the past; those
who only know how to anticipate the future; and those who have learned the
wisdom of enjoying it all by living in the moment! The point is, life is enjoyed
in the moment. The wisest thing you can do is to take the biggest bite of every
apple that comes your way.[2]
Kohelet’s
message is not communicating a fatalistic or epicurean sentiment, but rather
sharing a realistic outlook based on humankind’s mortality. If time under the
sun is limited, do not waste it “striving after wind” (4:6). “Remember your
Creator – remember that God has given you his gifts for your pleasure. Make the
most of them while you have the energy and the vitality.”[3]
Act now (“do not be idle”, 11:6), to squeeze the juice out of every moment of life,
but do so with the knowledge that God will bring all of one’s actions into
judgment (11:9). Finally, Kohelet concludes, “fear God and keep his
commandments, because this applies to every person” (12:13). A healthy
reverence for God will keep us grateful and content with his good gifts, free
us up to enjoy life to its fullest capacity while we still have breath in our
bodies, and remind us to live with good sense because we are accountable to God
alone in the end.
The words of another
wise man, Walter C. Kaiser, appropriately sum up the core of Kohelet’s message
and its ongoing impact today:
[K]oheleth urges acceptance of the
grace and joy of life, not pessimism, nihilism, and blind determinism . . . Out
of a distorted view of worldliness, wherein every pleasure ordained by God for
man’s enjoyment is either denied or begrudgingly used, many have developed a
superpious, unhappy, and even miserable existence. This text proclaims
liberation to them. Brother and sister: rejoice in God’s good gifts, and ask
for his ability to rightfully use them.[4]
“Remember
your Creator” and make the most of the hevel
that he has provided for you to enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment