What's the Point?

It’s here! The holiday season is finally upon us. Yes, Walmart has been setting up Christmas supplies since August, but now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it’s Christmas time! The Holidays bring a mixture of emotions for all. Some long for and love everything about it, while others dread the holidays.

Life is interesting in that way. No two people are alike. The very things that bring life and joy to one are the same things that bring dread and death. It is rooted in the perspective we choose to look at life from.

As a Christian, Jesus is the point, He is the reason for the season and He is the source of joy and happiness. Admittedly, knowing what I know about Jesus, I can’t imagine going through life with out Him. This is the understanding that Solomon arrived at toward the end of his life when he wrote, “fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

The key to a joyful life is found in Christ, yet sometimes Christians get their eyes off Jesus. Sometimes we live each and every day as if God does not exist. Those days and times we are living as practical atheists. We say we believe in God, but we live like there is no God.

No God

Solomon examines his life and his pursuits apart from God and concludes it is pointless, fleeting and a chasing after the wind. When we loose our focus or if we do not believe in God, life can become boring, bankrupt and even bitter. And why not, what is the point? What brings meaning to life.

In reflecting about life apart from God, Solomon asks, “what does the worker gain from his toil?” If the here and now is all that matters to you, if you don’t have a higher calling and a heavenly perspective then there is an emptiness to life.

Yet you do believe there is something more. The question nags at you, “there’s got to be more to life then this, right?’ The sense that something is next, beyond this life, is there. You may not have the answers for the questions, but deep down you know that there is something.

Solomon again says this is because God created us with eternity in our hearts. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end”  (Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV).

As an exercise, read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 from a perspective that there is no god. What is the purpose of life? What conclusions would you draw?

Know God

God did not just wire us with a sense of the unknown and a desire to know eternity. He meets us where we are and provides an answer to the deepest longing of our hearts: Himself. Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life. He said He has come to give abundant life!

When we live life with our eyes fixed on Jesus, when we have a heavenly perspective, He brings meaning to the mundane. He is orchestrating in our lives a masterpiece to be lived out (Ephesians 2:10).

Reread Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 but from the perspective of 3:11, that God has “made everything beautiful in its time.” God is behind all things and in control of all things. How does this bring hope? How can this perspective bring life?

Instead of a boring life, God brings balance. Instead of bankruptcy He brings beauty. Instead of bitterness, He gives blessings.

God knows you and me. He knows our limitations and He is working in our lives. No matter what we are facing, when we get a firm grasp that God is there and working we see that He makes life bearable.

Reflections

As this holiday season is upon us and the business of school, work, travel, parties, etc. distract you, pause and reflect on your Creator. Know that there is a God in Heaven who loves you and cares about you. He knows that sometimes life is full of death, breaking down, weeping, losing and war. Hold on because He is working to bring life, building up, joy, victory and peace.

When in life you feel down and broken, check your perspective. Do you believe there is a God? Do you know Jesus Christ? If yes, have you been living as if He isn’t there? If no, call out to Him today. Jesus is truly the reason for the season. He has changed my life, He has given me hope and He wants to do the same for you.