Smoodock's Blog

Did you ever wonder why there is so much activity in life, as opposed to lying at rest in a kind of serene, blissful quietness, a wonderful, lazy, undisturbed moment that continues forever? Yet, we all know that life simply isn’t that way. For example, after we are born it isn’t long before we realize we are but transitory beings on earth. We are pilgrims, who live for a short while, and then we die and are replaced by the next generation of beings, who are inevitably bound to repeat the cycle.

When we look up and observe the heavens we are struck with constant activity, but in all its labors we find a cycle of constant repetition. We have sunrise and sunset, and enough of them will cause winter to thaw into a softer spring, which then heats up into summer, which, itself is destined to cool into autumn, and that ultimately freezes into winter once more, and the cycle begins all over again.

If we study the weather, we find that the winds of the earth, which at first might be pleasing but then dangerous, are really flowing in their circuits. Like roadways, which turn here, then there, they eventually end up where they began, and the cycle, though complete, continues ad infinitum. Additionally, as one passes from the wind to water, we discover there is a weather cycle in the waters that cover the earth. The rivers flow constantly into the earth’s vast oceans, yet the oceans never seem to fill up. Rather, through evaporation, the vapor is carried by the winds over the land, and it turns into rainfall and snow, which keeps the rivers flowing back into the ocean, and nothing seems to change.

As we consider it all, we come to understand that no power of man seems able cause our life to behave differently. We live, and we die, but we cannot, with all our knowledge and discoveries, change what we’ve understood from the beginning. Although we may be able to cure an illness or a wound that could have been fatal, we cannot change the fact that, eventually, we shall all die. We seem destined to be mere witnesses to all that occurs in life on this earth. We may be able to prepare for the inevitable, be it death or the pleasant or the disturbing experiences brought on by our dangerous environment, but we are unable to change the power that causes all these things to occur.

Life is like that, and it is too powerful for us: “The thing that has been is that which shall be; and that that is done is that which shall be done (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The Teacher will tell us later that there is a time and season for everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1), but we are powerless to change what is in an effort cause something new to occur (Ecclesiastes 1:10). The really sad part of all this is, that those things we might possibly change, such as our behavior, won’t change either! Why not? It is because we live, and we die, and the generations that follow ours will eventually forget any lessons we may have learned, and those succeeding generations must relearn life’s lessons all over again (Ecclesiastes 1:11). The saying: history repeats itself is true, because few will learn from the mistakes of the past, and are, therefore, destined to repeat the same errors of the preceding generations!

The Teacher tells us that we live in motion not rest, and all the activity of life is cyclical. The ancient Stoics noticed this and taught that life could be enjoyed only by accepting its ups and downs, and Solomon, our Teacher, agrees to a point. However, he will conclude differently. He was not the fatalist that the Stoics were. While they sought to accept the good and bad things of life, they did so by exercising their philosophy through self-discipline. Solomon agreed only that life, such as it is, must be accepted. Nevertheless, if one is to derive any degree of enjoyment out of life’s experiences, it can be done only by obeying and fearing (respecting) the Lord (Ecclesiastes 12:13) and leaving life’s justice/injustice to him (Ecclesiastes 12:14).