It is often said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) Most people probably don’t know that this is a statement from scripture. It is said in the midst of it’s author confessing that all gain is meaningless, everything is meaningless, even knowledge!
The author of course is not shunning godly knowledge, the knowledge attained in Scripture, for he speaks that when he goes after deeper knowledge (maybe we could call this the “why” of God’s plan) that he ends up with frustration, because he can’t straighten out what seems crooked. He is not depending solely on what God has revealed.
The author here, of course, is Solomon, whom God blessed with wisdom (1 Kings 3) But even in all of that Solomon found sorrow from trying to attain wisdom outside of the counsel of God.
I find it hard not to concur with Solomon. I cannot pretend to even come close to having the knowledge of one of Solomon’s hairs, but life does become frustrating when trying to futilely get beyond what God has revealed.
You may have read the beginning of this thinking that I was going to slam the emerging (emergent, conversational, etc.) church. I am not (in so far as I am not lead there in my thinking as I write.)
Really the frustration I think comes in my bent towards pragmatism in a time when most people are postmodern in their thinking. Here is what I mean. The question is, “How do I minister t those whose loyalties seem to lie somewhere other than the church?” In this there is frustration and futility. The frustration comes because there is no way to do this, the admission to futility is found when I realize there is no way to do this.
Most people tack “church” on to their already busy lives. (Read: they then do not have a proper understanding of what the Church really is!) How do I cope with this? How do I make them want to come to fellowship and understand their need for discipleship? Well the answer is simple, but I try to make it so complex.
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