Hard to say what other people will do. It's definitely a gamble. If you like the things you post, you've at least got that much -and no one has been let down for what they have undertaken in love.
I went about six months here before I got my first comment -some wandering person- and yet, I got so much out of it, even then. I'll make you a deal, Triton: if you create it and notify me, I will check it out!
This site is quickly becoming a tribute to the book of Ecclesiastes ... and it's about time. Thanks for the reminder, EIM. Reminds me of a passage from Philosophical Fragments:
When Philip threatened to lay siege to the city of Corinth, and all its inhabitants hastily bestirred themselves in defense, some polishing weapons, some gathering stones, some repairing the walls, Diogenes seeing all this hurriedly folded his mantle about him and began to roll his tub zealously back and forth through the streets. When he was asked why he did this he replied that he wished to be busy like all the rest, and rolled his tub lest he should be the only idler among so many industrious citizens.
Some days I feel I could almost find it within myself to write a book about how pastors try to get around the 'meaningless' passage from Ecclesiastes. Dr. Walt Russell in his book, 'Playing With Fire' (A title warning us not to be daring, although faith itself is a daring) contends that 'Life can seem meaningless...'. How sad that even a conservative Christian college like Biola feels the need to package up the passages in the Bible so that we do not see the very things we need to be warned about. If one does not know the terrors, as SK says, one does not know the greatness.
One way of reading the passage (whether or not it is faithful to the passage I leave you to answer) is to note that everything-in-itself is meaningless, but this does not rule out that someone may find something (however meaningless in itself) meaningful to him personally. Consider the way crayon scribblings of a child may be works of art to the parents ... or like the two mites dropped by the widow into the offering. If you are able to find such trifles meaningful, it will be perfectly clear to you how trifling everything else really is.
11 Comments:
I don't know how people cope at all without God.
Pam
Creating a blog is something I've been wanting to do, but I fear no one would read it. I guess that's not all bad either ;)
With the success of coping without God comes great unhappiness. I wish I could say I was ignorant of that sadness ...
Hi Triton,
Hard to say what other people will do. It's definitely a gamble. If you like the things you post, you've at least got that much -and no one has been let down for what they have undertaken in love.
I went about six months here before I got my first comment -some wandering person- and yet, I got so much out of it, even then. I'll make you a deal, Triton: if you create it and notify me, I will check it out!
You have yourself a deal!
The words of the Teacher, [a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:
"Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."
What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils 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.
The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
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.
Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.
This site is quickly becoming a tribute to the book of Ecclesiastes ... and it's about time. Thanks for the reminder, EIM. Reminds me of a passage from Philosophical Fragments:
When Philip threatened to lay siege to the city of Corinth, and all its inhabitants hastily bestirred themselves in defense, some polishing weapons, some gathering stones, some repairing the walls, Diogenes seeing all this hurriedly folded his mantle about him and began to roll his tub zealously back and forth through the streets. When he was asked why he did this he replied that he wished to be busy like all the rest, and rolled his tub lest he should be the only idler among so many industrious citizens.
Some days I feel I could almost find it within myself to write a book about how pastors try to get around the 'meaningless' passage from Ecclesiastes. Dr. Walt Russell in his book, 'Playing With Fire' (A title warning us not to be daring, although faith itself is a daring) contends that 'Life can seem meaningless...'. How sad that even a conservative Christian college like Biola feels the need to package up the passages in the Bible so that we do not see the very things we need to be warned about. If one does not know the terrors, as SK says, one does not know the greatness.
One way of reading the passage (whether or not it is faithful to the passage I leave you to answer) is to note that everything-in-itself is meaningless, but this does not rule out that someone may find something (however meaningless in itself) meaningful to him personally. Consider the way crayon scribblings of a child may be works of art to the parents ... or like the two mites dropped by the widow into the offering. If you are able to find such trifles meaningful, it will be perfectly clear to you how trifling everything else really is.
...please where can I buy a unicorn?
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