Ecclesiastes\u00a0<\/em>put it into words 2600 years ago. \u201cAnd nothing is new under the sun.\u201d People often think existential despair derives from knowing life is meaningless. I disagree. Existential despair results from fearing life is meaningless.<\/p>\nThere are three basic approaches to living a meaningless life. The first is living as though one\u2019s actions have no effect on anyone else. Those people who try this often settle into a self-loathing despair. \u201cWhat I do does not matter and therefore does no good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second approach to useless living is to try to make one\u2019s life mean something great. It is a running joke for middle aged people to wish they had all of the potential back. Some people were told in their younger years, \u201cyou can do anything you want to do\u201d or \u201cyou have such potential.\u201d These people wander at their apparent failure to live up to the presumed potential. It is the desperate desire to achieve. Such a person forgets that Mahatma Gandhi never received a Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n
The Third Approach<\/h3>\n
The third approach to useless living does not end in despair. I believe this is the point of\u00a0Ecclesiastes.\u00a0<\/em>\u201cWhatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. For in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.\u201d (9:10) \u201cThis could be the T-shirt slogan,\u201d one professor said to me.<\/p>\nGoal oriented people do not find these words encouraging. Such people could say, \u201cthere\u2019s no point in trying.\u201d And that is exactly the point. It takes a sense of spiritual maturity to do it. How we think about ourselves is at issue.<\/p>\n
Mark<\/em> tells how Jesus\u2019 disciples fell into arguing over who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Assuming Jesus is greatest, which one of us is next? Why does it matter? If one cannot be the greatest, why should there be any pecking order? They wanted a reward for their efforts.<\/p>\nJudas Was Not Useless<\/h3>\n
Judas is the one who found his reward. He did not have it within the Twelve. So he looked somewhere else for his recognition. He decided to despair. \u201cI have betrayed an innocent man,\u201d he claims wishing to take back what he had done. He felt the self-loathing despair and acted upon it.<\/p>\n
Ecclesiastes<\/em> claims there is no reward for our efforts after death. But there is happiness in our efforts while we are alive. Christian teachers argue there is no recognition of worldly achievements in the afterlife. But if we are reward oriented either by achievement or pleasure, we fail to understand this truth.<\/p>\nHappily Useless<\/h3>\n
Being content is the purpose of life. Being dissatisfied is the motivating factor of life. And so we work to satisfy those needs. Then we enjoy those needs being fulfilled. We realize that our achievement is not our own. Then we help other people find the contentment for the day\u2019s work. It is how being useless by other standards is happiness now. As St. Paul says, \u201cBut we urge you beloved, to do so more and more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands, as we directed you.\u201d (1 Thessalonians 4:10b-11)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ecclesiastes\u00a0is my favorite book of the Hebrew Bible. \u201cUseless, useless, says the preacher, everything is vanity.\u201d It is astonishing how one can achieve and then lose. Kipling\u2019s poem \u201cif\u201d comes to mind here. Can a person really cope with emptiness? The Despair of Useless Living Thoreau claims, \u201call (people) live lives of quiet desperation.\u201d Every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4332,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,119,116,127,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional","category-preaching","category-sobriety","category-spiritual-self-care","category-theology"],"yoast_head":"\n
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