Twenty years ago, I was 44 years old and in the prime of life. God-willing, 20 years hence, I’ll be a year older than Joe Biden is today.
“For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” — James 4:14
In the autumn of his life, Solomon wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes. As I grow older, his words resonate more than they once did.
With life experience comes perspective… and a search for meaning.
Solomon had it all. Money, fame, power and godly wisdom, for which he was known everywhere. The Queen of Sheba traveled to Israel to see for herself if everything she had heard about Solomon was true. She did not leave disappointed.
All his life, Solomon enjoyed the best of everything, yet in his final years, he came to realize it all meant nothing — everything he had done, all the wealth he had amassed, everything he had built and accomplished — it was all “vanity,” meaningless.
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” Solomon says. “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.”
“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done, and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
Many of life’s goals reveal their emptiness only after having been wasted in years of pursuit.
After much rumination, Solomon ultimately declares, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
Life only gains meaning through the restoration of one’s relationship with God, and that is only possible through His Son, Jesus Christ.
It is never too late for a person to find God and give meaning to his life, but once found, believers must guard against complacency, and Christians would do well to remember that for all his wisdom, the end of Solomon’s life could not have been more tragic for himself or his people.
Our goal should be to finish life well by continuing to fill our days with things that have eternal value.
I suspect former President Jimmy Carter understood this better than most. His involvement with Habitat for Humanity, and his work around the world to eradicate disease, mediate conflict and monitor elections all give testament to a godly life lived well.
In his spare time, Carter also wrote 30 books, the last one published when he was 94 years old. And he taught Sunday school for more than 40 years until he was nearly 100.
President Carter fought the good fight. He finish his race. He kept the faith.
The new year is staring us in the face, daring us to make a difference for Christ. Our lives should be visible testaments to our faith, like a “lamp on a stand” shining light in a dark world so that even those who do not believe will “glorify God in the day of visitation.”
By living godly lives, we “put to silence the ignorance of foolish men” who are all too eager to speak evil against us.
For the Christian, there is no such thing as retirement. We may retire from a career, but we will never be done living out our faith until the day the Lord calls us home.
As we begin yet another year, we would do well to remember Solomon’s admonition that contentment will never be found “chasing after the wind.”
In the words of C.S. Lewis, “There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”
Chris Roemer resides in Finksburg. He can be contacted at [email protected].