City Slickers is an old movie (1991) that tells the story of three friends having mid-life crises. They escape the city and head west for a two-week cattle run to discover what's important in life.
Before they leave, Mitch (played by Billy Crystal) shares what he does for a living on Dad's Day at his son's school. Instead of talking about his work as a salesman, Mitch bewilders the third graders with a monologue about how bleak their future is. Take a look (show City Slickers, Dad’s Day scene). He says:
Value this time in your life, kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices, and it goes by so quickly. When you're a teenager, you think you can do anything, and you do.
Your 20s are a blur.
Your 30s, you raise your family, you make a little money, and you think to yourself, “What happened to my 30s?”
Your 40s, you grow a little pot belly. You grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud, and one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother.
Your 50s, you have a minor surgery. You'll call it a procedure, but it's a surgery.
Your 60s, you have a major surgery; the music is still loud, but it doesn't matter because you can't hear it anyway.
70s, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale. You start eating dinner at 2:00, lunch around 10:00, breakfast the night before. And you spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate in soft yogurt and muttering, “How come the kids don't call?”
By your 80s, you've had a major stroke, and you end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can't stand but who you call mama.
Any questions? (City Slickers, Columbia Pictures, 1991, written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, directed by Ron Underwood, begins at 00:16:50; www.PreachingToday.com).
What a bleak outlook on life! But that’s the nature of life “under the sun.” That’s the nature of life without God.
Do you want a different kind of a life? Do you want a life full of meaning and purpose? Then I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 3, Ecclesiastes 3, where the Bible describes how to enjoy a meaningful life when you invite God into your everyday existence.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace (ESV).
God is absolutely sovereign. That means God has set a time for every matter under heaven, for every event, for every affair. Literally, for every desire.
Now, when Solomon describes these events, he lists 14 pairs of polar opposites (or for you grammar nerds, 14 merisms). It’s a common literary device, which puts two extremes together to include those extremes and everything in between. So God not only determines the time of a person’s birth and death, but also the time of every event of that person’s life in between.
And the fact that Solomon lists two sets of seven merisms is significant, as well, because the number seven suggests completeness. That is to say God is in COMPLETE control of everything that happens. Ephesians 1:11 puts it this way: “[God] works ALL things according to the counsel of his will,” not just SOME things, but ALL things, not just the GOOD things, but the BAD things, as well, not just the PLEASANT things, but the HARD things, too, not just the BEAUTIFUL things, but the UGLY things, as well. God is in complete control of everything that happens.
You can look at this in one of two ways. 1st, you can despair, because God’s control means you have no control; all your efforts are therefore meaningless, because they don’t make one bit of difference in the end. That’s one way to look at God’s complete control of everything.
The other way is to delight in God’s sovereign control, because that means everything you do is part of His sovereign plan, the good things, as well as your mistakes, your successes, as well as your failures. God causes ALL things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28, NASB). That means everything you do has meaning and purpose, because it is all a part of God’s sovereign plan.
So, if you want to enjoy a meaningful life, don’t despair. Instead, delight in God’s sovereign control.
APPRECIATE GOD’S TIMING IN EVERYTHING.
Relish His purposeful plans for you.
Pastor Bruce Thielemann talks about his first pastorate in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, which was famous for having the world's largest steel-tube rolling mills. They created an amazing, seamless tube unlike any other. He describes standing in one of those great machines with the operator (incidentally, the command module was called “the pulpit”).
From there, he'd see a great serpent of molten metal come slithering down into the machine, and it would be chopped off. Then the machine would grab it by its ends and begin to spin. By centrifugal force, that bar of molten metal would open from the inside out, forming a perfect tube of steel without seam and without blemish.
Many times, Pastor Thielemann asked the men directing those machines, “What's the most important ingredient in the process?”
The answer was always the same: “It's the temperature of the metal. If it is too hot, it will fly apart; if it is too cold, it will not open as it ought. Unless you catch the molten moment, you cannot make the perfect tube” (Bruce Thielemann, “Tide Riding,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 30; www.PreachingToday.com).
God’s timing is always perfect. He always catches the molten moments in your life to make you the perfect conduit of His grace, to make you more like Christ, who died for you and rose again.
So don’t resist what God is doing in your life; accept it. Don’t despair; delight in God’s sovereign control. Trust Him with your life and let Him use you for His glory. If you want to enjoy a meaningful life, appreciate God’s timing in everything. Then…
COOPERATE WITH GOD.
Yield to His will. Instead of expecting God to accommodate you; you, accommodate Him.
Ecclesiastes 3:9 What gain has the worker from his toil? (ESV)
In Ecclesiastes 1:3, Solomon asked, “What does MAN gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” Here, Solomon asks, “What gain has THE WORKER from his toil? Literally, “What gain has THE MAKER from his toil?”
Now, tell me, who is the Maker of all? Is it not the Lord! The Lord is the Maker (Psalm 95:6; Proverbs 22:2; Ecclesiastes 11:5; Isaiah 44:24). Man has no gain from his toil, but the Maker always gains from His work. The Maker always accomplishes His good purposes.
And it’s only as you and I cooperate with our Maker, that our work has any meaningful result. On our own, our work in meaningless. But with God, everything we do has meaning, because it is all a part of His grand and glorious plan.
Solomon asks the question, “What gain has the Maker from his toil?” “What yield?” “What profit?” Then he answers that question in the following verses. God’s work yields beauty (vs.10-11). God’s work yields pleasure (vs.12-13). God’s work yields permanence (vs.14-15).
So first. COOPERATE WITH GOD AND FIND BEAUTY. Experience what is proper and fitting when you yield to His will.
Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end (ESV).
Even though people cannot comprehend God’s eternal plan, they want to, because God has put eternity in their hearts. People have a longing to be part of something much bigger than themselves, something of eternal significance.
And that’s possible. You can be a part of something bigger than yourself, but only if you see your labor as part of the beauty that God is working out in everything that happens. For “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Better: “God has made everything proper in its time.” Everything is appropriate. Everything fits beautifully in God’s eternal plan, including your painful, sometimes frustrating toil.
I like the way one commentator put it: “God’s actions are not simply arbitrary, but appropriate; not simply confining, but releasing; not simply disconcerting, but reassuring” (Schultz, Evangelical Commentary on the Bible).
Don’t lose sight of that! When you do your work, see it as part of the beautiful work God is doing overall. Otherwise, you’ll just throw up your hands in despair and quit.
One day, while rummaging through a dusty old attic in a small Austrian town, a collector came across a faded manuscript containing many pages of music. It was written for the piano. Curious, he took it to a dealer, who phoned a friend, who appeared a half hour later. When he saw the music score, he become excited, then puzzled. It looked like Mozart’s handwriting, but it was not a well-known piece. In fact, the expert had never heard it before. So there was more phone calls, more excitement, more consultations. It really seemed to be Mozart, and some parts seemed distantly familiar, but the score did not correspond to anything already known in his works.
On top of that, the manuscript was incomplete. There were gaps in the music. Just where it seemed to come to a climax, it seemed to stop and then pick up again later. Gradually the truth dawned on the excited little group. What they were looking at was indeed Mozart’s work. It was, indeed, beautiful, but it was the piano part that involved another instrument or perhaps other instruments. By itself, it was frustratingly incomplete, a signpost to something more (N. T. Wright, quoted in Eric Metaxas, Socrates in the City, Dutton, 2011, pp. 207-208; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s our situation, trying to figure out the whole score. We see bits and pieces of beauty, but the high points are missing.
I’m sure Jesus’ disciples felt like that in the time they spent with Jesus. They saw bits and pieces of beauty in His teaching, in His miracles, and in the way He treated people. But He ended up on a cross. Their life with Him was frustratingly incomplete until He rose from the dead.
Then they discovered that His cross was a signpost to something more. It was a signpost to God’s beautiful plan to pay for the sins of the world, to redeem people from bondage to sin, and to redeem the whole world from the curse of sin.
Do you find your life to be frustratingly incomplete? Then trust Christ with your life. Put your life in God’s hands and discover that signpost to something more. Discover that signpost to something beautiful God is working out in His time. If you want to enjoy a meaningful life, cooperate with God and find beauty.
More than that, COOPERATE WITH GOD AND FIND PLEASURE, as well. Enjoy your life more when you yield to His will.
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man (ESV).
God gives people the ability to shout with joy, to do something good, i.e., to do something useful and desirable with their lives, and to see pleasure in their work. All this is God’s gift to you! All you can give yourself is despair, but God gives you delight, even in your frustrating labor, when you turn your life over to Him.
A university professor talks about being invited to speak at a military base one December, where he met an unforgettable soldier named Ralph. Ralph had been sent to meet him at the airport. After they introduced themselves, they headed toward the baggage claim.
As they walked down the concourse, Ralph kept disappearing. Once to help an older woman whose suitcase had fallen open. Once to lift two toddlers up to where they could see Santa Claus, again to give directions to someone who was lost. Each time he came back with a smile on his face.
"Where did you learn that?" the professor asked.
"What?" Ralph said.
"Where did you learn to live like that?"
"Oh," Ralph said, "during the war, I guess." He then told the professor about his tour of duty in Vietnam, how it was his job to clear mine fields, how he watched his friends blow up before his eyes, one after another.
"I learned to live between steps," he said. "I never knew whether the next one would be my last, so I learned to get everything I could out of the moment between when I picked up my foot and when I put it down again. Every step I took was a whole new world, and I guess I've been that way ever since." (Barbara Brown Taylor in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, Baker; www.PreachingToday.com).
You too can learn to live between steps,even in the minefield of this world. You too can find joy in the middle of a hard life. Just walk with God and let Him delight you along the way; let Him show you the useful and desirable things to do between steps.
If you want to enjoy a meaningful life, 1st, cooperate with God and find beauty; 2nd, cooperate with God and find pleasure.
And finally, COOPERATE WITH GOD AND FIND PERMANENCE, as well. Be a part of something that lasts forever when you yield to His will.
Ecclesiastes 3:14-15 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away (ESV).
Or better, God seeks what has passed by (NASB). In other words, God will call the past to account (NIV). At a time yet future, God will judge the past deeds of everyone.
God’s work is permanent—It “endures forever.” God’s work is perfect—Nothing can be added to it. And God’s work is unchanging—The present and the future “already has been.” Therefore, the only appropriate response is to fear Him, to reverence and respect Him.
Now, in the wisdom literature of the Bible, to fear God means to trust and obey Him. If you respect someone, you believe what they say and do what they tell you to do. In the same way, if you fear God, you will trust and obey Him.
Before committing his life to Christ, Lewis Smedes worked for his uncle's steel company. In his memoir My God and I, He writes:
Gigantic cranes hoisted the steel beams from boat to dock by means of immense electro-magnets, each of them about three feet thick, eight feet in diameter, and weighing about fifteen tons. The magnets hung at the end of a two-inch cable which was, in turn, controlled by an operator sitting in a cab above the docks. I was standing on the ground blankly watching the theater of steel bustling around me when a shadow fell over me, which seemed odd, because there were no trees or building that could cast a shadow.
I looked up and saw one of those immense magnets ten feet above me. [Dock workers] ducked in and under these magnets all day long without giving them a thought, but I did not feel safe with that monster hovering over me, so I took a long step away. At that instant, the magnet crashed to earth and scraped the heel of my shoe as it landed. Rushing to investigate, the crane operator discovered that the cable holding the tons of magnetized steel above my head had been frayed down to a few threads of wire just before it crashed.
Later on, away from the docks, I wondered whether God himself could have pushed me out of the way of that magnet just in time to save my neck and get my attention at the same time. It seemed absurd to wonder whether the Maker of the Universe would go to such extreme lengths to get the attention of a failed steel man. But then again, I had been less than a tenth of a second away from being crushed to the thickness of a dime, and such things do not happen every day (Lewis Smedes, My God and I: A Spiritual Memoir, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003, pp. 47-48; www.PreachingToday.com).
The Maker of the Universe indeed does go to extreme lengths to get your attention, too! That’s what His permanent, perfect, and unchanging work is all about. Whatever He does, He does “so that people fear before him” (Ecclesiastes 3:14).
God wants to be in a relationship with you! So quit running away from Him and let Him catch you. Commit your life to Him. Trust and obey Him and be a part of that work He is doing that will last forever.
If you want to enjoy a meaningful life, appreciate God’s timing in everything. Then cooperate with God. Cooperate with God and find beauty. Cooperate with God and find pleasure. Cooperate with God and find permanence. Cooperate with God and enjoy a meaningful life.
F. B. Meyer put it this way: “God has set Eternity in our heart, and man's infinite capacity cannot be filled or satisfied with the things of time and sense” (F.B. Meyer, “Our Daily Walk,” Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no. 8; www.PreachingToday.com).
Rather, a person’s infinite capacity can only be filled in a relationship with an infinite God. Please, through faith in Christ, enter into that relationship with the infinite God, and let Him fill that empty space in your soul with Himself.
