Who Can Save Us from Futility?
From our earliest days our drive is fueled by our craving to satisfy our desires. We are driven for food, for possessions, for status, for recognition. But in the end all of these will be consumed or given to someone else. Food will turn to waste. Possessions will rust and rot. Status and fame will fade with the fickle passions of those who bestow them. "This also is vanity and a striving after wind."
We mindlessly strive for pleasures without eyes to see our wickedness. The road is wide and the lanes packed with people striving after this futility. Wasted lives in the making. We are powerless to change our affections, which drain every ounce of energy in their quest for fulfillment chasing after mirages. Each time our disappointment is mended with the promise of something better, yet we are blind to see the pattern. What then shall we do? Who can save us from this futility, from this death?
A quiet word comes in the night; so faint, almost imperceptible. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." It is the voice of someone who is curiously familiar, yet unknown. "What is this peace?", we ask. Suddenly our hearts yearn to know this peace. Previously we would have said we wanted peace but this seems different, more quieting, more restful. Where can we drink of this peace? If it were a pond would we not dive in? It seems so close, yet so unattainable. What shall we pay for this precious jewel?
The darkness fades and we begin to recognize the futility of our life. Presented with our damage and confronted with our deficiencies we are offered a pardon in exchange for peace. The only cost is our lives. We are presented with a choice: continue to destruction or die that we might live. But the choice is unmakable because our passions lead to destruction and we are powerless to change them. Is this new longing crueler than the previous? At this moment the eyes of our hearts are opened to see that the one offering the change is also the one who makes us willing to ask for it and he is also the one who will carry it out.
In a split second our futility turns to disappointment, from disappointment to despair, from despair to joyous rejoicing in our new found and durable hope. We have found our Savior and He is the Word. From this moment on our greatest joy comes in drinking deeply of ths peace that has been given to us. Like the beggar at the restaurant our only gift to the chef is to ask for seconds.
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. (Philippians 3:19)
This also is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecc 2:26)
Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. (John 6:27)
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst..." (John 6:35)
"...I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh..." (John 6:51)
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." (John 14:27)
