Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember your Creator
    in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
    and the years approach when you will say,
    “I find no pleasure in them”—

The first part of this is excellent advice, but everything that follows, all the way through verse 8, is a terribly depressing view of aging, old age, and death. This brings me back to my conviction that Solomon is one of the most pathetic figures in the whole Bible. He had absolutely every advantage, with intelligence and wealth and every opportunity, and yet along the line he took it all for granted and lost focus on his Creator (though he gives Him lip service here.) Our lives are indeed meaningless vanity (one of Solomon’s favorite words) without the awareness that we were created for a purpose, and our existence doesn’t end with our physical death. The Egyptians focused everything on the afterlife, but that too is a mistake. Our time on this earth is indeed brief, but we aren’t here by chance, and the better we grasp our purpose, the happier and more fulfilled we will be. Solomon’s biggest problem was that he let pride replace gratitude in his heart, and human pride is indeed empty vanity. We can gain wisdom from what Solomon wrote, but the best thing we can gain from him is not copying his negative example. That he would actively promote and participate in idolatry, after all God had done for him, is incredible to me. Like his father David before him, women were a snare to him, and the results were tragic.

I thankfully had the example of a father who was totally committed to his Creator, and totally faithful to his wife. At 76, the physical symptoms of aging mentioned here are easily recognized, but I don’t let them take control. I don’t expect to have years in which I have no pleasure! At the moment I’m in the final stages of recovery from what seems to have been the flu, which was of course no fun, but I am feeling much better than I was, and I anticipate months and years of productive life ahead. The important thing for me is to keep my focus on my Lord, not simply for the eternal reward that awaits me, but for what He wants me doing here and now. My greatest joy is in the awareness that I have been useful to my Lord in some way, sharing His truth with someone or otherwise blessing them. I look forward to going walking this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks, because of our trip and the illness that followed. I look forward to the exercise itself and to taking pictures of God’s beautiful world I’ll be walking in, but I eagerly anticipate running into a man I’ve gotten to know through these walks. I don’t know if we will synchronize this morning, but I hope we will, since his birthday is tomorrow. He doesn’t yet know Jesus as Lord, and the prospect of being useful to God in drawing him to salvation is exciting to me. Whenever God takes me home, I want to have as many people as possible “tagged” to join me when their time is up!

Father, thank You that my “final years” are far brighter, far more joyful and meaningful than Solomon’s were. May I not “kill time,” but rather delight to do Your will on Your schedule, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!