#YOLO

Ecclesiastes 11:7–10, 12:1–2

"Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun. However many years a man may live, let him enjoy them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is meaningless. Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment. So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigour are meaningless. 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"; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain..."

What somehow bothers me (not really sure that I should be) about the Book of Ecclesiastes is on its emphasis on something like 'eat, drink and be merry, for we shall all die'. This struck me as some sort of fatalism in the face of the inevitablity of our demise. Today, this is rendered clearer and we see the proper framing of the idea as it unfolds in the text. We always hear/read people say 'life's just too short' and 'we've got to live like we're dying' or nowadays what we say is #YOLO or 'you only live once' and therefore you've got to make the most out of this one life that you've got. Nothing inherently wrong there, it's just that it is a serious test that highlights what we value in this lifetime. For most, YOLO means do those things that will make you feel good and be happy — eat, drink and be merry regardless of consequences and more often than not, it's this license of youth somehow, an opportunity to break the rules, make mistakes and follow your heart (v. 9) whatever it takes. The death of Steve Jobs brought to closer attention, the man's personal philosophy and one of the more famous is when he said "There is absolutely no reason not to follow your heart", I saw that on virtually all of my friends' facebook statuses and from that I figured something is wrong here (simple rule of thumb from Mark Twain: "whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect.") It brought to mind the prophet Jeremiah: "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick, who can understand it?" (Jer 17:9). Engaging in needless folly for the sake of experiencing youthful excess is breeding ground for mediocrity. We can be swept away by the wrong desires and are rendered incapable of reaching our fullest potential – what God wants us to become. And so here in these passages we find that along with "follow your heart" is an appeal to sobriety. There is a responsibility attached to our God-given freedoms in that we are asked to "know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment". I have seen men who seem to have never stopped being boys playing and playing around and those who indulge in the escape either to overly anti-machismo 'soft side' or unrestrained appetites. I dare not judge persons, but these days I am also seeing all sorts of utterly rubbish ideas the 'thought leaders' of our current culture are propounding pf what seems to me a glorifying of the 'feminization' of manhood (not to demean anything feminine, but only to appeal to natural differences). God is no kill-joy party pooper and He does welcome us to confide with Him and our brothers our deepest anxieties, insecurities and frustrations –our soft side. God also desires to bring out the children in us at times to trust Him with humility and simplicity of heart. God also wants us to enjoy much, and live life to the fullest — Christians are to be the most joyful people on earth because of our redemption through Jesus, and in God's right hand are pleasures forevermore — amid the many "days of darkness" and sorrows this life is filled, we have this hope in Christ. There is a time for everything, however, lest we get it twisted; when He calls us to arise, to "man up" to our responsibilities to ourselves, our families and our communities, we do our best to struggle and strive to measure up for His Glory as men of courage, honor and excellence. Looking at the Living Life Devotional book, I noticed that we'll be reading Revelation next, I got quite excited, since I was looking up Doctrine of the Last Things when the other day a friend asked on Facebook what Christians think "of the book of Revelations [sic]" and "Jesus' second coming". Ecclesiastes seems a nice segué to the Apocalypse: In the face of our inevitable destruction and the fleeting nature of our existence, and yet given God's glory imparted to each one of us in Christ, brothers, what values we hold to, will be magnified?

Colossians 3:1–5

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature..."

~20.10.2014