11th Study: Ecclesiastes 11:1-10

 After ten chapters, I know some of you think that the Book of Ecclesiastes is a stark, even bleek book in the Bible.  Hmmm…I can see that. However, I believe Solomon’s journey through wisdom doesn’t sugarcoat life in all its facets.

Well, the next two chapters (which are the last two in Ecclesiastes), Solomon becomes upbeat and hopeful.  Yeah….not all of Ecclesiastes is dour and grim.  LOL!

The first six verses of Chapter 11, Solomon is writing about taking a risk.  Pastor Meyers writes this:

Those first set of verses is about taking risks. It is about the temptations that arise in this uncertain, uncontrollable world. Will we just do nothing? The note of caution sounded in chapter 10 cannot be allowed to paralyze us. Oh my, there will be flies in the ointment! We should stop making it! Our disorientation and fear stemming from wisdom’s vulnerability must not be allowed to drive us to paralyzing anxiety or the crippling inactivity of despair.  {pp.192}

Basically, Solomon in this chapter reveals that he is the original creator of the Nike slogan, Just do it!

I would like to write about my own personal risk-taking that happened in 1994, just a couple months before my 23rd birthday.  {Boy, time flies!}

I moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Santa Fe, New Mexico in June 1994 with only a few hundred dollars in my pocket.  I had decided my life at that time was going nowhere and I needed a drastic change.

So I sold the little furniture I had in my studio apartment and kept my last paycheck from my job (I was working for a Comic Book Warehouse at the time) and caught the Greyhound bus going west.

The trip took two days by bus and after a few days of arriving in Santa Fe all money was spent. Even though, I was not a Christian at that time,  (Church folks scared me back then and I wanted nothing to do with Christianity) I do believe God’s hand was on my life.

I got to live at a hostel and it happens the roof of the building needed repair.  I asked to help and doing that job paid for my rent until I found a place of my own.

There were several events in my life during that time, where I got what I needed right when I needed it.  Not a moment too soon or too late.  Now, I know that God was paving the way for me to accept and follow Him in my life.

I can write a lot about my years living in New Mexico (almost 10 years), but I will save that for another Wisdom of Marion column in the future. However, I learned that sometimes in life you have to take a risk and step out of your comfort zone even if family and friends don’t understand.  Also, I must write your family and friends can be the biggest roadblock to your risk-taking.  Be careful on who you are talking with if you have decided on taking a risk in your life.

For the remaining verses of the chapter, Pastor Meyers writes:

Jesus is not simply the Savior of one’s individual soul. Even if you add your body to the mix and look for bodily transformation at the resurrection, that is not enough. He is not plucking us out of our material environment. Rather, he is the Savior and Reconciler of all creation.

We need to stop compartmentalizing the world. God’s covenant with us is his covenant in Christ with all the creation. In this biblical context, one shouldn’t even raise an eyebrow that Solomon sings the praises of work, wife, feasting, and drinking wine. If that seems too physical, worldly, or unspiritual, maybe it is time for us to get a grip on what the Bible says is truly spiritual.   {pp.205}

Amen, Pastor Meyers for that!

God is a God of integration.  He doesn’t separate or compartmentalize like we do as human beings.

This is why the Book of Ecclesiastes is so important to me from my perspective.  It reveals that being a Christian doesn’t just mean that I have “A Get Out of Hell Card for Free.”

Christianity is much bigger than that and it covers every area of our lives.  Somehow that last sentence is completely misunderstood in Christendom. And because of Ecclesiastes, I’ve begun to look at the Bible and Christianity in a completely different way.

God is much bigger than we truly allow and accept him to be in our lives.  So enjoy your wife or husband, have joy, make a living at something you are truly gifted for and please take a risk in life because He wants you to.

God Bless and see you next week.

Here are a couple of questions to think about from this week’s study:

1) If God blessed you to take one risk in your life, would you do? If so, why?  And if not, why?

2) Why do we compartmentalize God over here with our Church life and keep him away from our everyday lives outside of Church?