What have you lost in this season?
Slow down long enough; you begin to sense the loss. You buy coffee with a mask on your face. You have had to wait for a haircut or try a DIY with the trust of a family member. Students lost the chance for a typical graduation. Some lost out on trips and other opportunities.
Not everything taken from us, though, has a negative impact. Perhaps, the filled calendar of events paused you long enough to make changes. Seasons like these reveal faithful friends to keep, but also friends of convenience.
I find myself reflecting on the book of Ecclesiastes in this season. The Coronavirus pandemic has refocused our attention to the aching questions of our existence. At times, we have tried to place our meaning in worth in things that will never really satisfy our deepest longings.
Bono, the lead singer of U2, said this about Ecclesiastes:
“Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books. It’s a book about a character who wants to find out why he’s alive, why he was created. He tries knowledge. He tries wealth. He tries experience. He tries everything. You hurry to the end of the book to found out why, and it says ‘Remember your Creator.’ In a way it’s such a letdown. Yet it isn’t.”
Bono, Quote found in Why Everything Matters by Philip Graham Ryken
This world in its brokenness will give you the illusion of control and meaning. This season of lockdown and quarantine has called that into question. Knowledge faces disputes from the leading experts. Wealth rises and falls with the stock market. Experience leaves us empty, trying to accumulate more.
The writer of Ecclesiastes closes with a straightforward appeal, “Remember your Creator…” (Ecclesiastes 12:1)
Bono’s right, it seems like a let down to just discover the Creator, but there’s a vast invitation to find Jesus. You can spend your whole life pursuing things to make yourself matter. Or you can respond to the good news of the gospel – to find the ultimate meaning in Jesus through His death and resurrection.
Derek Kidner, a commentator on Ecclesiastes, said,
“Nothing in our search has led us home; nothing that we are offered under the sun is ours to keep.”
Derek Kidner, The Message of Ecclesiastes
Our search for home leads us to the Creator, not the creation. The gift of the Coronavirus causes us to question what matters. Often, the things taken from us become a gift, because they held on to us more than we hold on to them.
In this season of loss, take a moment to read Ecclesiastes in one sitting. Perhaps, those losses have led you to experience Jesus in a new way.
Photo by Andrew Ridley on Unsplash