Life Under the Sun

Part 1: Ask the Right Questions

By Louie Marsh, 8-7-2022

 

Everything I Need To Know About Life, I Learned From Noah's Ark.

One: Don't miss the boat.

Two: Remember that we are all in the same boat.

Three: Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.

Four: Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.

Five: Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.

Six: Build your future on high ground.

Seven: For safety's sake, travel in pairs.

Eight: Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.

Nine: When you're stressed, float a while.

Ten: Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.

Eleven: No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.

 

1) ASK the right questions.

 

“3What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 4A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 6The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. 7All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. 11There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.” (Ecclesiastes 1:3–11, ESV)

 

• The truth is: much of life is DULL!

 

“The basic fact about human experience is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not that it is predominantly painful, but that it is lacking in any sense.” - H.L. Mencken

 

 “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” - Thoreau

 

“The craft we call modern; the crimes that we call new; John Bunyan had them typed and filed in 1682.” - Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

 

2) EMBRACE the ugly truth.

 

“12I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. 15What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.” (Ecclesiastes 1:12–15, ESV)

 

• Seek = “investigate the roots of the matter.” (research)
• Search Out = “to examine all sides.” (Experimentation)

 

• EMBRACE IT = ACCEPT IT, FIND GOD IN IT, THEN WORK TO CHANGE IT FROM THERE.

 

• The sensual lure of something better tomorrow robs us of the joys offered today.
• The personal temptation to escape is always stronger than the realization of its consequences.

 

3) LEARN your limitations.

 

“16I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. 18For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” (Ecclesiastes 1:16–18, ESV)

 

“A man’s got to  know his limitations.” – Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood)

 

”Education – that great mumbo jumbo and fraud of the ages – purports to equip us to live and is prescribed as a universal remedy for everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility. For the most part it serves to enlarge stupidity, inflate conceit, enhance credulity, and put those subjected to it at the mercy of brainwashers with printing presses, radio, and television at their disposal.” - Malcolm Muggeridge, (1903-1990), Jesus Rediscovered,

 

4) LOOK above the sun!

 

“1The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:1–3, ESV)

 

• Meaningless = used 35 times in the book – from a word for breath, means hollow, vain, useless.
• Under the sun – used 29 times, refers to life WITHOUT God –
• Under heaven – used 3 times – means same thing.

 

3 Truths To Help Us Get Started:

 

• The final destination, if God is absent, will NOT satisfy!
• If there’s nothing meaningful under the sun – our only hope must be above it!
• If a man who had and tried everything visible was left unsatisfied – the one thing needed must be invisible!

 

Errol Flynn, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, Introduction (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959)

 

I was without faith. Full of regret that I could not believe in God. I was upset with people who said to me, "What? You don't believe? You don’t have faith? Well if you don't have it, you just don't know," in a very upsetting, smart-alecky tone that many people have. They give it to you in a very superior way. They are in touch with God, you are not! If you don't know, old man, it's your tough luck. I doubt these people. Maybe they don't look at life hard enough and deeply enough. Maybe they Iet the barriers down at a certain point, and don't resist, and they let something rush in that they call God.

 

I'm too hardheaded for that. I have been in rebellion against God and Government ever since I can remember. As a result I am tormented, as it I have been missing something that others have. You can have fame, fortune, be an international character, and wonder whether some little guy who has faith has something bigger than anything you have ever had.

 

But I had my vodka—and had faith in that. It came in cases. I got up in the morning and reached. I hawked, coughed around a while, took another drink, started the day.