The Daily Devo with Steve

The reading this morning reminds me of a quote from Heraclitus that says: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man”.  I feel like this is almost saying a similar thing to what is being said in today’s reading Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, except that Heraclitus had a positive spin on his comment.

The teacher is commenting on the brevity of life, how the world doesn’t care that we are here, that time passes and life moves on and that our interaction with the world, our impression on the world, doesn’t seem to make a lasting impact.  It is a sobering thought for sure.

I am not going to read everything ever day, but for the sake of setting the tone for this book that we are reading, I am going to read these 11 verses because these really set the tone and the stage for all that is to come - it is kind of a primer for the book as a whole.

Now, one thing that is hugely important for us to remember as we are reading this probably 2000-2500-ish years after it was completed, is that the arrival, life, and resurrection of Jesus adds something to the story that the teacher and this author didn’t have to draw from.  So we have to keep this in mind.

That said, I have two thoughts from today’s reading:

1. Back to the Heraclitus quote - the world moves on, time passes, the sun rises and the sun sets, and we may not be remembered on this earth, but the positive to that is that every day that we wake up and have breath in our lungs, we are experiencing a world that has never been and will be the same.  We can choose to see that as a good thing, and we can learn to enjoy the moment, the here-and-now.  That is something I have struggled to do for so long and am working hard to do with these 10 minutes of silence and sitting in the a.m., and with my daily 10 minute mindful meditation.  Life is too precious just to pass it by.

2. Jesus changed so much of the seeming hopelessness of this book.  Granted, the author will resolve some of this tension of hopelessness in the end by drawing us back to the importance of uniting with God and trusting in God, but Jesus gives us the chance to have a reunion with God.  Jesus gives us a promise that what we do here is a part of God’s plan, and that God will use our work and the work of everyone to weave together a story for all of humanity.  He alludes to the idea that we’ll one day be able to see how all of that comes together when we are in Heaven with God.  That’s a HUGE advantage to us in reading this now, in 2021, with hindsight on our side.

It just makes me, as I often feel when reading the Old Testament, so thankful to live on this side of the resurrection.  I am blessed in that way for sure!

Today is really the background and the overview of Ecclesiastes, and then I will dive into it and we’ll just bounce back and forth between them and we’ll get to see how they are both related and different.  Should be fun.

Now, looking at Ecclesiastes, the entire writing starts off like this:

“The words of the Preacher, the son of David...”, but preacher is really a translation of Qoheleth (ko-hell-ith), which is a Hebrew word that means ‘one who gathers people’, and in this case the people are gathering to learn.  There are various views who this person is exactly, whether it is Solomon, another descendent of David, or just another Israelite teacher who is a lot like Solomon.  Whoever it is, a great piece of insight I got from looking at the Bible Project’s video on this is that we need to be sure we differentiate the author (who is anonymous) and the teacher, who is a character IN the story being told.  The teacher is IN the writing.  Most of the book is written by an author that wants us to form our own conclusions based on what the teacher is saying through the book.

The teacher’s main point throughout this book centers around another Hebrew word, hevel (or hebel), which is used 38 times throughout the writing, and most famously in this phrase that is repeated: hevel, hevel, everything is utterly hevel.  In the ESV, it is translated as ‘meaningless’ or as ‘vanity’ most often.  But this is a rich word with some context and complexity - it really means temporary and fleeting as well as inferring that something is an enigma or a paradox.  If you think of beauty or of goodness or justice like smoke, it is there, it is beautiful, and as soon as you try to grab a little ball of smoke, what happens?  Well, it just vanishes.  That’s the idea here...wisdom is there, it is real, but just as soon as you think it is tangible and concrete, it is violated and appears to be almost worthless.  In the teacher’s words, it is like “chasing after the wind”.

The author, by way of the teacher, wants us to deconstruct the way we derive purpose and value in our lives apart from God.

Themes that the teacher walks us through are the passage of time, death, deriving purpose from working hard (our careers) or through pleasure.  It is a roundabout journey through various ideas broached in various ways.

And even wisdom is hevel, it has no guarantees...it is an enigma, you want to employ wisdom in your life, definitely, but even it doesn’t assure of us any kind of outcomes.

So, what’s the point then?  If it is all so ‘meaningless’ what is the point that is being made.  Well, the teacher wants us to discover that, it is like he is trying to lead us to place where we eventually have reasoned our way to the same conclusion he has, which is that we should enjoy the gifts of God, that life is ultimately out of my control and under God’s control, and that accepting this reality and leaning into this reality is a way better way to live than the opposite.  It is almost an apologetic approach to arguing for the existence of God.

He is telling is that the pursuit of wisdom must done with open hands, without a pretense of control, and that we should trust God to take things where He may.  It is a different view on the utility of wisdom in our lives compared to Proverbs, but the conclusion is the same - God is ultimately in control.

Housekeeping announcement - I love reading this stuff, but we have been in Proverbs for a month (or longer?) and we are finishing up chapter 18 of 31.  What I am going to do is to start a different study tomorrow, not sure what yet, but I will start with pre-reading on that tomorrow and we’ll use Proverbs as our break from that if need it, and we’ll return to Proverbs and keep working our way through to the finish.  Just want to keep things fresh as it goes to my reading.

For today, I loved this verse - it really jumped out at me:

14 “A man’s spirit will endure sickness,

but a crushed spirit who can bear?”

I am being drawn to these self-reflective questions a lot, and perhaps it is the fruit of this 10 minutes of sitting with myself, reflecting on the state of my heart and my soul each morning...not sure, but this verse fits right into that theme.

Look, life is hard and we are all going to endure sickness, our spirit will be challenged, and the author is up-front about that in this verse.  But I love the second part, the question, “But who can bear a crushed spirit?”...great question.  What do you do when you are crushed in your spirit?  Well, it is typically destruction mode.  In this context, I believe what the author is communicating by the term ‘crushed spirit’ is a spirit without hope.  Now, you have to be pretty down to get to that level, but that’s the point I think...since we know that wisdom is a path down which we travel, as is hopelessness, we must look at ourselves, examine ourselves, and we must make sure we notice when we are moving in that direction long before we ever actually get to that place of hopelessness.  It is one thing to feel the struggle, to lose some of our hope, but it is another thing entirely to be hope-less.

It is so important that we learn to guard our heart.  It is so important that we surround ourselves with people who can both encourage us and challenge us.  This verse is just another great reminder of those truths, and of how important it is to stave off hopelessness a long way before we get there, because as the author simply states, who can really bear the weight of that crushed spirit?; no one.

Wow, this first verse is strong, as well as the second:

“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgement.”

I commented a few weeks ago in these readings that one of the things I am going to do this year is to get back into routine communications and friendship with some guys I know and have traveled through a lot of life with but have lost contact with over the last couple of years.  It is an important thing to do, and it is part of my 2021 planning that I’ve been doing.  The importance of that is again highlighted here - that fools live in isolation, and that isolation gets us away from judgement, which we may think we want, but it is that judgement and that connection with others that spurs us onward to being the best version of ourselves.  It is so important to have those people in our lives to do that for us.   And, for me, it is important that I have a couple varieties of those folks.  One of the groups of friends I had for years that I’ve been missing because I have been sidelined athletically is my friends from cycling.  That just has to be a part of my 2021 - getting plugged back into that community.  This Proverb and this verse just really reiterates that to me.

And as soon as I digest that, I look at verse 2, which is equally as potent:

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.”

When I am listening, I am learning.  When I am listening, I am growing.  When I am listening, I am becoming wiser.  When I am talking, with exceptions, I am meeting my own needs to feel understood and important.  As I said, there are exceptions to this, but I would say that this is more often true than not.  I need to listen more...just a quick pause before I speak, just a moment to consider the motivation behind speaking, and to consider whose benefit is being met with my words.  That one practice can really be a big emotional intelligence booster.

Verse 4 reiterates yesterday’s commitment to the rubber band on the wrist...I have it and will keep it on there for a week or two - it says:

“The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.”

I love the insight from the study Bible, which tells me that comparison with 20:5 suggests that the this term “deep waters” connotes concealment.  And, if this is what the author is intending, then here he is contrasting our human reluctance to give ourselves away, with the refreshing candor and clarity of the true wisdom, which is easy to see.

It is a beautiful image.  And that goes back to listening more and speaking less for our own benefit, but when it is of benefit to others.  What happens is that we often talk to conceal ourselves.  One of the easiest ways we do this is with stories.  We are late for work, and we tell our boss, “Sorry I am late, when I was leaving, I ran into traffic at the .....(fill in the blank)”.  We love stories, they can break the fall, soften the blow, and they can conceal the reality of a poor decision.  They also help us to sidestep the embarrassment, which is the punishment for the mistake.  That just leads to it being easier and easier to repeat.  It is a kind of justification.

On that note, I am adding something to my rubber band wrist-slapping exercise...not only will I pop my wrist when I say something negative, I am going to pop my wrist when I offer up and excuse or a story that I know is really just for my benefit.  I am not going to give myself that luxury.   I want to grow, and mistakes and the subsequent consequences for those mistakes are just a part of the process.

In reading today, the first thing that really jumped out at me was verse 3:

“The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, but the Lord tests hearts.”

Wow...that is strong right there.  When I am struggling, when I am bleeding, when I am hurting, what is my GUT reaction?  Do I seek the Lord, or do I take things into my own hands and blaze my own path?  Is seeking God’s counsel the gut reaction that I have?

Just as silver is shaped and challenged by the crucible, and gold by the furnace, we, God’s children, are shaped in times of challenge and struggle...and God is not only testing us to strengthen us, but to see ‘who’s’ we really are...and we are wise to recognize that tendency in ourselves as well.  A great sign of spiritual development is when that reflex reaction leans more and more heavily towards relying on God, that we would seek His wisdom, that we would look to His word, and that we would pause and consider the ‘wise’ thing to do.  That’s when we know God is really seeping into us and molding us.

Man, that’s good stuff right there!

And then the last 2 verses really struck me, verses 27-28:

“Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.”

I would consider myself a positive person, an optimist.  I would also consider myself a persistent person.  Over time, especially as it relates to my career, I have had various highs and lows and my life, as is the case with everyone, has gone through these ebbs and flows.  2020 was an especially stressful year, as was 2019, and I think it really wore me down.  Some of that positivity, some of that optimism was converted into cynicism.  In the grand scheme of things, it was stress just converting that optimism to cynicism...that’s what happens.  The thing is, I have noticed that my words have followed, and they’ve become more critical, more cynical, and less optimistic.  The problem is, our tongues, by way of our words (as Proverbs clearly teaches) essentially have the ability to direct our lives.  Spewing negativity can’t have positive effect on my life...that just isn’t going to happen.  It can give me a stress relief in the moment, at best.  At worst...well, it can be WAY worse, and we know that.

So, I am going to strap on a rubber band today, and keep it on for a few days, and I am going to snap it against my wrist when I catch myself making negative comments.  It think it will just take a week or two and I will get back on top of myself in this way, but I think it is a great and important habit as I start 2021...to do as verse 27 suggests, to restrain my words, to maintain a cool spirit.  Great reminder on this front this morning.

Here are the two verses that really stuck out to me this morning, for whatever reason:

16 How much better to get wisdom than gold!

To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

17 The highway of the upright turns aside from evil;

whoever guards his way preserves his life.

I really like the combination of these two verses.  The first really makes me ask a question I asked a couple weeks back during these readings - do I really value wisdom appropriately?  Do I hold it in high enough regard?  Do I really value it above all else?

And how do I REALLY know the answer to that question?  Well, the second verse, verse 17, says that the highway of the righteous, the person who DOES rightly value wisdom, turns away from evil, from sin, from unwise things...he flees them, he doesn’t play around the edges with them.   It says that whoever GUARDS HIS WAY preserves his life.  That is clearly pointing to a person being away from danger, trying to steer clear of the risk of danger...being wise and not tempting fate.

I think a great thing to consider would be to think about areas of life where I am making small decisions that aren’t wise, and look at the path those decisions may lead down...because we are always in motion down a path; either towards wise living or towards destruction.

It is January 1...perhaps I can take a few minutes today and think these various domains of my life - my spiritual life, my marital life, my parental life, my work life, my physical (fitness) life, and my avocational life and ask, “Am I moving down the path towards righteous living or not?”.  That can be a thought process that is a springboard for moving forward in 2021.

The majority of this chapter is dedicated to the topic of being able to receive discipline and reproof without taking offense to it.  It is about being humble enough to be corrected, to be adjusted...it is about accepting the fact that I don’t have it all figured out.  Now, this is a thing where I would like to say that I am reasonably well-suited...I am stubborn and I may fight for what I believe in, but apologizing and accepting when I am wrong and changing to a better way is an area where I do fairly well.  So, I will only make a brief comment on this - I don’t want to be a finger-pointer!  It is very difficult to grow to your potential if you can’t be wrong, and worse than that, if you can’t apologize.

When was the last time you apologized to someone?  I mean a REAL apology...not the “I am sorry I forgot the milk”, but something like, “You know, I have to say, you have been right all of these years about this and I just didn’t see it...I realize that I have hurt you...I am sorry.”  For some people, apologizing is just something they really struggle with...and, often times, these same people are the people that can’t seem to forgive either, because they don’t want to ‘let the other person off of the hook’ or they don’t want to be perceived as ‘condoning’ something.  Our responsibility is to be open to truth...from God, from others, etc...it is our responsibility to live life with open hands in that way, palms up.  It is also our responsibility to forgive.  It is God’s, and only God’s, responsibility to make things right in the end.

I think the last couple of verses pretty much hit the nail on the head:

“Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence.

The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.”

I know I am stubborn and I know I am not a great listener at times...and those are areas where I can certainly grow.  The key though, is to be open to the reality that I am not doing something right, that I don’t have it all figured out...in my heart of hearts, am I humble enough to admit that to myself?  That’s a great thought.

For today though, the great question for this chapter for me would be this: “To whom do I need to apologize, with a REAL apology, and for what?”

Finishing up with this Proverb from yesterday, focusing in on the last 13 verses, there seems to be a theme of the heart, which we haven’t really seen yet, and that I’ve been looking forward to.

Fear of the Lord -

Slow to anger -

Tranquil heart -

Oppresses a poor man -

Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding -

Righteousness -

...the heart is a big part of wisdom, not just the brain.  That’s part of what makes this so hard...we can’t just have the cognitive ‘know how’, but we must be sufficiently motivate, inclined, and humble to submit ourselves to wisdom.

Today, I am asking myself a question that may seems a little odd, but it is this, “How’s your heart?”.

If I pause and think (and I did do my 10 minutes of sitting this morning...very refreshing, day 2 is in the books!), but if I think about it, how IS my heart doing?  Am I mad at someone?  Am I hurt?  What am I feeling?  What am I hoping?  What’s the temperature of things inside of me ‘emotion-wise’?

It is important and often overlooked, understanding how we are doing in this way.  Am I really fearing the Lord in a healthy way?  How about anger...do I have any that I am harboring against someone at the moment?  Or is my heart tranquil?  Am I open and healthy enough, that I am in a place experience both empathy and sympathy, both feeling what others feel understanding what they feel?  It takes a healthy heart to be able to do that well.  Am I living ‘rightly’?  Living in wisdom begets seeing and hearing wisdom...healthy and righteous living position us and sensitize us to God’s will and God’s word in our lives.  How am I doing there?

This morning’s reading reminds me of the importance of the heart, and of assessing it.  In fact, I think this is a great thing to be thinking about during these 10 minutes of silence each morning...because it is precisely that time of time and setting where I can actually get to the root of my emotional state.

Great reading this morning.

Another longer Proverb today, but as I am reading it, I kind of feel like it is broken into 2 piece - the first 22 verses, and the last 13.  Today. I am covering the first 22.

The first ‘section’ seems to have a theme of living an upright, wisdom-driven life...living life intentionally, thinking and THEN doing, not just firing from the hip all of the time.

Verses like:

(1) The wisest women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.

(6) A scoffer seeks wisdom in vein, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding.

(12) There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of the earth.

...there are plenty more, but I can’t write out the entire Proverb!  I hope you are reading before or after listening each day, as it is God’s word that is really so enriching.

At any rate, as I read these verse, I think about intentionality...perhaps because it is the end of the year and that’s what we do at this time of the year, we think about goals for the next year.  But, there is something to be said about the person who sits down, thinks about his life, plots a path for the future, and seeks God’s counsel in how to move forward.  I think many people take life day-by-day with no big directional orientation.  I tend to to go overboard at times on the living directionally vs. living in the moment, but it all comes from the same thing...not taking time to sit and think.  When was the last time you just sat still for 10 minutes...5 minutes...or any time, and didn’t do anything but just sit?  I used to have a habit of starting my day with 10 minutes of just sitting...and it was awesome.  So much so, that I stopped doing it.  I used to have a great meditation practice...so much so that I stopped doing it.

Well, here we are, it is the start of a new year...today is the day.  I will start today.  As a part of my morning routine, I will start my ‘sitting’ practice...10 minutes to just sit, coffee in hand, and taste and enjoy the coffee, smell the air, pet one of our COVID kittens if one hops up in my lap...no phone, no pad to write on...just sit.  10 minutes.

On the way to the office...I will stop in route or I will pause before starting once there or before sitting at my desk and I will meditate.  10 minutes.

Lastly - following up on yesterday so we can spend time really digging into these other few verse that jumped out at me, there are several comments in this Proverb about disciplining our children.  The one that stands out to me, largely because of its wording I suppose, is 24:

“Whoever spares the rod hates his son,

but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.”

Here is the reality...life is hard, and life spares no one in discipline.  Life doesn’t care about hurting your feelings, wounding you, or killing you...it will run you over if let it.  Disciplining a child, or a young adult, or even an adult I suppose, is part of the parenting process.  It is part of the molding process.  Perhaps one of the greatest lessons we can impart on our kids is the ability to treat discipline not as an insult, but as a stepping stone.  If your kids can view discipline as a part of life, and as a sort of knife-sharpening exercise rather than being offended and insulted by it, they won’t internalize reproof, but they can use it to grow.  That’s the vision I think God give us for discipline.

And just to point out another verse that I think it important, that kind of piggy-backs on yesterday’s financially-focused discussion - this verse 22:

“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,

but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.”

Now, obviously, if a person is good for leaving money to his children’s children, there are only two possibilities...he leaves nothing to his kids and leaves everything to his grandkids (which isn’t what I think the author is driving at here), or he leaves a lot behind (which seems a little more likely as to what he is suggesting).  I point this out to make sure we are comfortable with the fact that having money isn’t bad...making money isn’t bad, spending money isn’t bad...what’s bad is having the wrong relationship with money.  Money is a tool for living the life we are called to live, it just isn’t the goal in-and-of-itself.  And, if riches are your motivation, meaning material possessions are your thing, then you are chasing your tail and will never have enough.  As we discussed yesterday, ‘funded contentment’ is the goal...having enough money to live the life we are called to live.

An notice the language of the next verse...the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous...translation, if you can never have enough, you’ll never have enough, which is chasing riches and living in sin, and all you have will eventually land in the hands of the the person who CAN have enough, and those riches for the sinner will becomes wealth to the wise man.  That’s pretty powerful stuff right there!

Great words of wisdom this morning!