Does It Really Matter?

I am now re-reading the one book in the Bible that I always feel ambivalent about; I both hate and love it. I love Ecclesiastes for its sheer poetry and I hate it because it can be so depressing. Indeed it's been called the saddest book in the Bible. Written by a monarch who was gifted by God with "wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore" (1 Kings 4:29), for one who started so well in life, I always wonder how Solomon ended up this way, sounding so..... tired and beat-up? How can someone who penned such profound and poignant thoughts....

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,  
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,  
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 
a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,  
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. ... (Eccl. 3:1-8)

also be the same guy who declared in the same breath...
"Meaningless! Meaningless!"Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless (Another version puts it even stronger, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity) .....I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. ....I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. 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; nothing was gained under the sun....the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. But better than both is the one who has never been born (Eccl. 1:2,14, 2:10-11, 4:2-3)

Man, talk about a serious case of depression. Surely by all standards, Solomon had nothing to be depressed about - he was king over Israel which under his reign achieved its greatest territorial extent. The world literally came to sit at his feet. God poured upon him so much additional blessings of wealth, possessions and honor, such as no king before and none after him had ever had (2 Chronicles 1:12). He undertook and completed the greatest building project of ancient times in the construction of the magnificent First Temple in Jerusalem which took 3 years to prepare and another 7 1/2 years to finish, utilizing in the process 3,000 tons of gold, 30,000 tons of silver, and furnishing it with staggering treasures in its interiors. This was a guy who had no lack of wine, women and song in his courts. So what happened? Perhaps the modern pyschologist would put it down to a typical case of having too much of a good thing . Or maybe just maybe this was a man who finally stopped long enough to ask himself the ultimate question every thinking human being will ask one day- what is life, my life, all about?

Solomon had everything going for him , yet by the time he wrote Ecclesiastes, it seemed as if nothing really mattered anymore. In the end, after much pondering , Solomon had this to say, "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil" (Ecc. 12:13-14) I don't know about others, but I have felt very much like Solomon before, when you come to a point in life where you wonder.... Does it really matter whether I live or die... does it really matter if there is a heaven and a hell? Isn't living a good life on earth all that matters? Does God really matter? After all, I have been living life well enough without God; what's the difference with or without, life still goes on anyway, and it will end anyway. Besides why should I 'surrender' to a Being who can't even prove His own existence? What really matters?? Solomon concluded God matters because (whether we believe it or not) all of mankind will stand to be judged before Him.

I reached the same conclusion though from another angle. I realized though I may think life is just about living the best I can, doing what good I can, and then calling it a day when I return ashes to ashes, dust to dust, the truth is my life matters to someone other than I. And I am not talking about loved ones, family or friends. These people are there to grace my life, indeed I am very grateful to have and to love them and to be loved by them. Still these too will all pass away one day, whether before or after me. But there is One who has me in His thoughts for eternity, who created my inmost being; knit me together in my mother's womb, when even my frame was not hidden from Him, His eyes already saw my unformed body; all the days of my life were ordained for me , written in His book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:13,15,16) This One knows everything about me, all the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly and seeks after me like a lover pursuing his beloved. He will not let me go even when I let Him go; He is faithful even when I am faithless. My life matters to Jesus so much He died for me, so that I could live- not just a 'good' life - but a forever life made right with God and man. A life that can and should go beyond simply living, loving and dying to remain just a temporary memory (good or bad) in the fleetingness of finite time on this earth.

Max Lucado in his book "No Wonder They Call Him Savior" tells of a disenchanted young Christian who in his own words, 'grew up in church, wanted to go into ministry, took all the courses, the theology, the languages, the exegesis' and in spite of a degree in theology still 'quit on God.' His question to Max was simple, "What really matters? ...Don't talk to me about religion...I just want to know what counts." The question stumped him and it was years down the line before Max figured out the answer, in his own words, 'The part that matters is the cross. No more, no less... It rests on the time line of history like a compelling diamond. Its tragedy summons all sufferers. Its absurdity attracts all cynics. Its hope lures all searchers....My, what a piece of wood! History has idolized it and despised it, gold-plated it and burned it, worn and trashed it. History has done everything to it but ignore it. That's the one option that the cross does not offer. No one can ignore it! A crucified carpenter claiming He is God on earth??...Its bottom line is sobering; if the account is true, it is history's hinge...if not, it is history's hoax... that's why the cross is what matters.'

And I can only add, it's because of the cross that I matter. I matter so much to God that He did everything necessary to save me, a sinner from the judgement of certain death. When I look to the cross where Jesus hung dead, I understand God's declaration and affirmation that He so so loves me , He loves...me . When I ponder on the resurrection of Jesus Christ , I am assured my life doesn't stop when I draw my last breath on earth; because I have called on His name, there is still an eternity to enjoy, secure in the greatest love of God. It blows my mind that I am created and meant to be more than a memory. And yes, it matters.

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures"... 1 Corinthians 15:3-4