King Solomon was a wise man. He had everything he wanted material wise, and the sort of brain he desired. He desired wisdom, so he obtained wisdom. He got everything he wanted in life: riches, women, and the ability to discern good from evil. Despite everything, he still hated life.
My faith in Christ is my entire identity. It's what makes me who I am. Without it, I wouldn’t be complete. In humanity, religion can get easily overlooked and people forget the importance of finding a solid foundation in Christianity. It's not only a prideful act, but also a lack of faith—it’s lacking the faith that your life in the creator's hands is myriad better than the life you choose to live. When the Bible is brought up, many people disregard it, not seeing it as solid evidence for a debate. Mainly because it’s viewed as an old ancient book that is no longer relevant to today's society. Yet the Bible holds principles that relate to every human life across every time period and through any development. It holds life lessons, morals, stories that can be applied today and words from The Lord himself. What better way to get to know your creator than to indulge in the book he created for humans?
I wake up and go to sleep, like everyone else. I engage in activities like socializing, entertaining myself and indulging in conversations to tear my gaze away from some sort of inescapable, heavy breath of the helplessness we all feel at one time or another. Holding your breath, your chest tightens, you may get lightheaded, and it paralyzes you in a way. It is self explanatory that upon holding your breath for long periods of time, you can’t engage in normal activities, including the ones where talking isn’t necessary. How are you expected to focus on your book, when your head is light and dizzy? How can you eat food when you can’t inhale and your chest is tight?
Even the mundane, you find no reason to exhale, yet it’s inevitable: to keep on living is what most people settle for. To hold your breath and die is too gruesome for even those who live lives of apparent numbness and immunity, one never really remains unbothered by that sort of idea.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon speaks of life. He begins by asking the point of anything at all. Humans are too conscious. We’re bound to fall into that sort of thought at one point in our lives, even if we avoid the topic of philosophy as much as possible. He asked for wisdom, which was now something he considered valuable. King Solomon became completely aware of his position and the sort of being he is. He realized that he finds little purpose and comes to these sorts of conclusions, the sort of conclusions where things on earth are miniscule. He acknowledges wisdom on this Earth as a very important aspect of life. Foolish people should not be used as examples of what to do right.
At the end of the day, he looked at everything he did and grew heavily unsatisfied. Being wise is definitely better than being foolish—but what's the real difference? To say you’re smarter, to understand more depth in the good, means you equally understand the depth of the bad. And even if you understand more than others, a fool and a wise man aren’t all that different because in the end, your fates are the same. He comes to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter if you consider yourself wise or not, you’ll end up in the same position. Then, King Solomon proclaims, “And so I hated life.” He felt that heavy breath of air that stayed trapped in his lungs, —even exhalation wasn’t real relief—because after exhaling, a long breath must follow to prevent physical death. It’s the same cycle as waking up and falling asleep. It seems any sort of remedy to his problems keeps getting defeated and he ends up going in circles. If we live not for the mundane, then why do we keep breathing? If we live not for wisdom, then for what do we keep waking up?
So what must we do? This wasn’t written to be a depressing sort, give-up-on-life writing to discourage you from doing anything. It’s a heavy breath that all of us carry, though not many speak of. Maybe your personal struggle isn’t continuing to breathe or waking up everyday, but you have your own heavy breath or personal cross, that ventures incessantly to weigh you down. The wise King Solomon has words for this too:
“So it is better to be happy with what you have
Than always to be wanting more.
Always wanting more is useless- like chasing the wind.
Everything that happens was planned long ago.
A man is only what he was created to be.
It is useless to argue with God about it.
This is because God is more powerful than man is.
The more you argue, the more useless it is.
You gain nothing at all by arguing."
Ecclesiastes 6:9-11
The Bible said to stop and think about everything God has caused to happen. You can’t change a thing, and wishing to or trying to force it will only cause strain. No one knows what tomorrow will bring, so enjoy the good times. There is no use in going against the life God has placed us in. There is no amount of complaining to God that will change His plan for your life. He knows what's best for you. He won’t give you more than your heart can handle. He knows the grief of the human heart. As 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 says,“Truly in our own hearts we believed we would die…..It happened so that we would trust in God, who raises people from death. God saved us from these great dangers of death. And he will continue to save us. We have put our hope in him, and he will save us again.” Because of your faith, you will be saved. This is emphasized in the Bible. We will always hold heavy breaths, but God would not bring consciousness to you to have you suffer from it. Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to prosper you, and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and future.”
Don’t cry about things that we can’t change—knowing we can’t change them should be a relief: you don’t have to work on something that won’t ever move. The cycle of life won’t ever change. Don’t fix your eyes on these things. Fix them on God, and He will make you whole again.
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