Pastor’s Corner

From Pastor Ben

Trivia:

If you guessed that toenails and fingernails are made out of Keratin you were RIGHT!!! In fact, Keratin is a substance that is found in many places in the human body. It is used to create hair and the top layer of skin. As your skin moves towards the surface, it slowly dies and becomes keratinized, meaning more keratin grows in it, making it harder. WOW!!!

Challenge:

Eccl. 6:3 "A man might have a hundred children and live to be very old. But if he finds no satisfaction in life and doesn’t even get a decent burial, it would have been better for him to be born dead."

Historically, having many children was considered being blessed. Psalm 127:3 says "Children are a gift from the Lord, they are a reward from Him."  Now this verse isn't refuting this conclusion that having many children is a blessing, and having been rewarded with a long healthy life is a definite gift.  What Solomon is attempting to point out is that even with these many blessings poured over a man's life, without an inner satisfaction these many blessing fall short of experiencing what could be considered real joy. In fact, he points out that if this man allows himself to become disgruntled with life as a whole, it would be better for this person if he had not been mourned over or even to have been born alive. Wow, what a statement.

So, just what is the message given to us here? Our Father God is attempting to communicate something vital for us to understand. So far, he has warned us of several things in these verses Eccl. 6:1-3. Was this man's life worth living if he was still unsatisfied even if:

1) He gains wealth, honor, and everything that this world can offer

2) He has a hundred kids who bare his name, and he lives to a very ripe old age

Rather than being blessed in his heart and experiencing satisfaction with these many gifts, he remains dissatisfied with all of these blessings, perhaps he would have been better off not mourned once he was dead or better not even being born to begin with.

Now the question is naturally posed, "What should bring satisfaction into our life?" The answer is that none of these gifts are capable of true, long lasting fulfillment. Right? 

We look about us and every day we see people trying to find fulfillment, and joy. But they often fall short!

To the wealthy man, it is just one more million.

To the aged man, it is just one more day.

To the powerful man, it is just one more success.

To the popular man, it is just one more reward.

Do you get the picture? 

Here we are reading the message of a man who had experienced all of this and yet he found through his experience that still none of these gifts can bring a true, deep, rich fulfillment. In verse 9 he gives us some additional insight and then in chapter 7-12 he leaves us with many additional rich nuggets of truth.  

In these upcoming chapters, you can read and enjoy these amazing insights that were given to him by our Loving Father. Though we are tempted to jump ahead and bury ourselves in the coming golden riches, we must first develop the understanding of this foundation of today's lesson.

The pathway to real satisfaction, fulfillment, and joy rests in our daily moment by moment determination

to Go With God. Rest in His eternal love of our soul, and, yes, rest even our failures as we grow and learn.