It's Okay to Sit in the Question | Ecclesiastes 1 | Crossroads Daily

was Christian, because he probably read this book, 'cause it ends with like, with much wisdom comes much sorrow. - Yes. - Right? - Or great power comes great responsibility. - That's right. - But what makes me think is like, you know, sometimes we think, okay, it's about the answer. And it's very, it's very cool and interesting that it leaves you almost like without an answer. - Exactly. - You know? - Exactly. - Which I think is the point. - It is the point. - It's like not having to know. - This is the Crossroads Daily. No experts, no perfect people, just honest conversations about what happens when the Bible shows up in real life. (upbeat music) Hey, I'm Chuck. - I'm Caroline. - I'm Victor. - I'm Chris. - And we're in a new book of the Bible today. That's right. It's our first day in the book of Ecclesiastes. And so just thinking about some context for Ecclesiastes and it went back to a great source resource, the Bible project. They have a great video on this. And a couple of things that they said, I thought might be good just to ground us in this. So Ecclesiastes is in a collection of books that's called Wisdom Literature. And you know, the wisdom books in the Bible aren't necessarily

saying this is hard and fast. It is this all the time black and white. There are actually books that are saying there's some principles in life and there's also some mystery. There's also some stuff to wrestle with. And so Ecclesiastes is really coming from a place of like reflecting on what is the meaning of life. Another thing I think might be helpful is like the book Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew, the language that's used, it actually means the gathering or the person in the gathering. So in some ways it's like this guy's kind of saying like, "Hey, I'm just asking questions like you." You know, like there's a teacher that kind of sets up the book, but then the person who's asking the questions kind of just like, "Hey, I'm in the gathering. I'm trying to wrestle this out." - Interesting. - And the last thing is there's a word you've probably read over and over again. It's like, "What, vanity, vanity or meaningless, meaningless?" That word in the Hebrew means vapor or mist. And the picture is like imagine if you saw a thick cloud, dark cloud or like a dark cloud of smoke, it feels like it's a very substantive thing, but if you tried to grab it, there would be nothing in your hand. - Did you ever go to the science museum as a kid where it had like the cloud and you could touch the cloud?

- Yes. - It's like that. - It's like that. - That's the image coming to my mind. It's like, "Oh." - Right. - There's nothing there, right? - It's like 50, yes. - Exactly. And I think that's with us. So the teacher's wrestling with the fact that like we put all of our stakes in these things in life, like career and success and power and money and relationships and all the things, and at the end of the day, does it really last? And I just wonder, have you ever asked that question? Have you come to a place where you've asked, "Is this all there is to life or is life meaningless?" - Yeah. - I mean, I don't know if as is a meaningless maybe I have, but it's the, especially when things get hard, it's like, why do we have to go through this? - Yeah. - What's the point? And I don't know that I can get to an answer specific. But I see even Solomon here talking, he refers himself to himself, he refers about himself as a teacher, you know? And I'm thinking, it's a cool posture that he assumes, where even as the teacher, he comes with questions. - Yes.

- And even things that are not conclusive. But yeah, there is, there's like, there's something. I mean, it is deep. - It is. - There's something that you can sense, you can grapple with, but you can't really quite get a hold of. - Mm-hmm. - Mm-hmm. I've asked that question in various forms, maybe every week, just depending on the thing, if my fantasy football team loses, I can just be like, maybe there's more to life than this right now. - There's absolutely more life than that, yes. - That's right. - Time will tell at the end of the season. You see how I do. But, or I will, like I've had jobs in the past that like on paper, like this is something I'd want to plaster to everywhere. And like show, like I've made it, and then I'll lay in bed at night and be like, I don't feel as good about this as I thought I would. And it feels like in the big things and the small things, I continuously have moments where I'm like, "Oh, I thought this thing would do it for me and it's not." And that, yeah, and somehow I'm still surprised by that after all this time. - I wonder, like if we were to pull a crowd of 100 people, if you were to say, because I feel like most people have been like, "What am I doing? What's the point of this?" Like at what times in your life are you getting to the point of like pondering these questions? Like what is it that leads you to that point? And that might actually be much more revealing about the answer than we would even think.

There have been times where I've been like so stressed out in my work. And I'm just like pouring everything I have into it, or I'm dealing with really challenging things. children and I have nothing for them and I've had moments where I'm like what am I doing? Why am I doing this? And for me it comes back to like oh I'm trying to control things or do things that aren't maybe where God would have me spending my energy and it gets me to the point of kind of asking this like angsty what is the meaning of life? Why am I spinning my wheels on these things? What is the point? Like you know yes I wonder what it would be if we were like what got us here? That would point something out to us. I agree and I think it's interesting you asked that question. My guess is that there are lots of places in life where people ask that question but some common ones would be number one when things are hard which we said I think you also ask it when you got what you thought you always wanted. And you still aren't satisfied. Two extremes in the spectrum. I mean we're gonna get into it but like the next chapter in Ecclesiastes that's basically what the teachers laying out. He's like I did it all I did everything that I could do and you know we'll save that for the next conversation but yeah but I do think that it's okay I think if I take anything from this first chapter of Ecclesiastes it's okay to sit in the question. It is okay to sit in that question because my guess is there are probably people watching that that's where they are. Yeah. They're in a place of doubt. They're in a place of uncertainty. They're in a place of like man it does not look like the good life is coming my way. And I think that just to know like it's okay that there's space in the Bible. There's space in the canon if you will of scripture to just sit with that question is really really valuable and important. And God and he models it for us throughout the Bible right? Oftentimes when we would want to provide an answer or maybe your longing for an answer to a question you see in Jesus' conversations he answers with a question. Even in the garden with Adam and Eve he asks them questions even though he knows you know what they've done and I also think they've had the best teacher I ever had in

high school who just totally shaped reshaped my mind on like what it means to teach well. And every time you asked Kevin Crosby, Mr. Crosby a question he was a science teacher. He would ask you a question in response to help you get you to that next place because he wanted you to find it on your own. I love that. And you still remember that and appreciate that right? Freshman here science. Yeah it makes me think of you know we're so sometimes fixated on getting that answer. Yeah. But sometimes the key is in the detention of not knowing. That's right. You know Eric when you say hey it's not that destination is the journey. That makes me think of how this chapter closes which I have to say probably Ben Parker Peter Parker's uncle was Christian because he probably read this book because it ends with like for with much wisdom comes much sorrow. Yes right? Or great power comes great responsibility. That's right. But what it makes me think is like you know sometimes we think okay it's about the answer. It's about achieving. It's about arriving. And I think there's a key of just in the on the way there. Yeah that's where we find God. That's where we us discover and uncover things. Yeah. And it's very it's very cool and interesting that it leaves you almost like with without an answer. Exactly. You know. Exactly. I think it's the point. It is the point. Like not having to know. Yep. Everything. It is the point. And I think you you name something that is worth naming as we get into Ecclesiastes which is many of us have been formed. All of us have been formed and many of us think very Western. Mm-hmm. And when I say that what I mean is we tend to to like logic. We want answers. We think the goal. We think that success is found in information. Like if I just know more then I'll be okay. Right. And yet that's a very Western modern and when I say modern I don't mean I'm not saying modern is a good thing. I'm saying it's like it's not the way that most of humanity has wrestled with these kinds of questions. It really isn't. Like it's new and it's you know thinking of information that way. And what this is is inviting us into the journey. It's more about relationship. What we're going to hear in this is like it's more about how you relate to God. That's right. And how you relate to the world than it is about having answers for the why

and the where for on everything. Mm-hmm. Yeah that's good. You know I have the chance to get to talk to different people that are different parts of their journey. Yeah. And many times when they're trying to share hey I'm a Christian or I'm you know I'm learning the Bible they focus on the knowledge. Yeah. Yes. And it's helpful. I mean it's helpful to know. But man the key is so not in there. It is in your heart. It is in how that transforms you more and you can learn all you want. But your life might not change. It's to something bigger and deeper than what we initially comprehend. So that's why I like, it's a deep book. And we can probably spend 20 sessions on just this one, just reflecting and pondering, but is that the meaning of life? - That is, yeah. So if you're asking that question today, you're in good company. I hope you realize that. You're in thousands of years of good company of people who are asking the same questions. To say that life is meaningless is hard to even articulate. And yet, haven't we all felt that in some way, shape or form? But what I wanna say to you is, this is the beginning of a journey. We're only in chapter one of Ecclesiastes and there's more to come. And as we engage with this teacher, as we engage with his words, I think there's something here for us. So I'm glad you joined us today and I'm looking forward to getting into this book as we keep going.

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