What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind."
~Ecclesiastes 1:2-3, 12-13 (ESV)
I had the privilege to finally graduate college this past Saturday morning (I'm now edumacated!). It's been a long, 6-year road to the coming of this occasion. And while school is a certain blessing, I sure was ready to finish this season of life and move on to the next.
What else is new?
Well, I'm not unique in that aspect--the whole "ready-for-the-next-season" thing. It was quite a challenge to be married, work full-time, do the school gig, and not have the best time-management skills all at the same time). In fact, here are some oft-repeated college phrases heard (and spoken) personally:
- "Ah! I am so ready for this semester to be done!"
- "I am SO ready to be done
- "I can't wait to get out of this place.
- "I just want to work and not worry about school."
- "Once I graduate, then...."
Okay, so I said those more than I heard them. And I heard them often enough to be reminded that we, as weak humans, so often forget where our hope lies. Only when we have our true Hope in the forefront--viewing all of our hardships, prosperity, and challenges alike through the filter of that Hope--can we rejoice in the midst of any given circumstance.
One lesson I sensed the Lord teaching me (especially the second half of the semester) is this: I (we) cannot place our hope in any earthly achievement, milestone, or possession and find it. He made clearer to me the foolishness of how there is "always the next thing," as in: "Once I have this or reach this goal, everything will then be fine!" Then once we get there, there is only the next thing about which we say the same thing.
Here are a few (bad) examples from my own life that show that this spans all of life:
- When I was very young, I couldn't wait to turn 12 and feel like a "big kid."
- When I was 12, I couldn't wait to be a teenager so I could relate to other teens.
- When I was a teen I couldn't wait to graduate highschool and also be able to hang with the college students
- When I started college, eventually I could not wait to leave my community college behind and go to a university.
- When I attended my university I couldn't wait to get out of there and be done.
- Almost all along, I couldn't wait to get married and leave singleness behind.
- When I got engaged, I couldn't wait to have a "real job."
Okay, you get the picture.
What the Lord has been speaking to me is that, "Franz, you can't place your hope in anything but Me and find it. Only the great I AM shall satisfy. Come, my child--I have given you this as another lesson about Me and to draw you to Myself and a deeper understanding of Me."
I soon realized that indeed I had been saying of something so fleeting as graduating college that "once it comes, all will be well." Not that I cared so much for the degree as I did being done with the school lifestyle and moving on to what I thought to be "better, more fruitful things." However, this season of school is exactly what God had for myself and my newly-wed wife. And what I saw once again is that there is no better thing than that which God has given. Or, as my lovely wife often says: "There is no better place to be than in the center of God's will."
"I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away." (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15)
Challenge and Application Questions
- What things are you tempted to place your hope in other than God?
- What things have you long placed your hope in other than God?
- How has God and how is God helping you turn from idols such as these to Himself--the living, all-satisfy God?
Citations
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