Solomon said that all is futility and chasing after the wind. He was referring to typical human concerns, as opposed to the deeper moral issues of Eternity. The rest of the Bible makes it clear that the only way to escape futility is to stop seeing the world through the lens of your own experience, your own short lifespan.
The prophet Malachi in particular addressed this. In his prophecy he portrays the Covenant duty of seeing oneself as just a single paving stone in the road on the vast stretch of God’s involvement in human affairs. He does this by rebuking the priests who had already begun to secularize, not seeing the critical part they played in the bigger picture. You have no choice in the path that road takes; your only option is to help make the road strong and stable, or to fall out of place and weaken things. You may not feel like you are doing that much, but it matters enough that God uses key individuals to change whole eras in history. You cannot know what part you will play until, in Eternity, the Lord shows you how important your faithfulness was to Him.
Or, you can simply choose to embrace the message that asserts your obedience matters, whether you can see it or not. Even without prophecies and revelations to us, He speaks most loudly to every human alive via their convictions, what we also call the leading of the heart, the moral language of the soul. If you would just pay attention to that, you would see all too clearly that your obedience matters in His ongoing revelation.
It is from the prophecy of Malachi that I got the image of moral infrastructure, building for the future. The biggest part of what God does on this earth comes in a time lag that is longer than human lifespan. He allows us to see that if we choose to look. If you really need some kind of moral affirmation, it’s found in your heart. It’s where you begin to see all things in terms of a timeless perspective, which in turn enables you to see across the ages of human activity in one broad sweep. That’s the place where Malachi still stands, warning us today: Build the moral infrastructure for future generations.
God works on a wholly different time scale. You are living with the results of choices made by previous generations. He established cycles that are thousands of years long, and all of that is included in His revelation. While you may lack the talent for thinking like that, what you do not lack is the ability to know His will for you. If you decide to play your part, He promises that it will work out in blessings you cannot see in this life. That’s simply the way it is. That’s why it is so important to embrace faith. And you should know that “faith” is a fancy word that means your lifelong commitment and submission to the will of God.
If you truly desire His will, He will show it to you — without fail.
Would you like to see some evidence of those vast cycles in thousands of years? Try this: Suspicious Observers. We are now living at the end of a 12,000 year cycle of galactic activity that will result in solar catastrophes. While the exact timing is impossible to measure with our current technology, it appears that the peak of disasters will come in about 25 years. That includes our sun experiencing a micro-nova, blasting the entire solar system with super-heated dust, high energy emissions, and a host of other effects that will likely wipe out most of the human population on this planet.
I believe the general thrust of that story; my convictions witness to the broad conclusions. To the degree this scientific estimation is accurate, it portrays for us the vast sweep of God’s hand. Whether mankind turns to Him or not, these events will come. For those who ignore the voice of God speaking in their hearts, their survival will be fairly random. For those who seek peace with God, their survival will fit into a pattern of divine purpose. If all you are worried about is whether you will make it, and how comfortable you’ll be, you will completely miss the point. If you tend to see yourself as a small part of what God is doing across the ages, you won’t care too much about your personal fortunes.
What you will care about is how to maintain that peace with God. You’ll be thinking about practical ways you can keep your testimony of His glory intact, regardless of the circumstances. All you really need to know about what’s coming is what it demands of you to remain faithful. And the answer will be in your convictions. Learn to recognize the truth of who you are and what role you play in God’s plans; learn to hear the voice of your convictions. They will often contradict the voice of your reason and your senses.
Minor example: It is not a matter of reason that I refuse to trust Microsoft as a provider of software and networking services. My reason suggests they are safer than Google. Yet, my convictions tell me just the opposite. It’s not a question of who is the good guy or bad guy, or places along the spectrum. Rather, it is intuition that says, despite my strong dislike for Google, I’ll trust their cloud services for the time being, and I’ll avoid Microsoft. I’ll invest in the Google technosphere for whatever use I have of technology, and avoid Microsoft (and Apple, for that matter). I’m not suggesting you join me in my choice here, but that you should be listening to your own convictions on the matter, or whether it even matters at all.
It should be obvious, though, that if you embrace the story told by Suspicious Observers, then over the next few years, you know technology will take a serious beating from solar activity. We are overdue for a major solar flare/CME that will likely take down the electricity grids of the world, and could fry a lot of electrical and electronic equipment. There will be no networks, neither cellphone nor computer. Use it while you’ve got it, but make plans to proceed with life minus such things.
And not just your own activities, but think a little about how life will change if electricity becomes absent or sparse in our world, at least for a while. To wonder how we would all keep doing the same things is the wrong question. Rather, stop and think about how you’ll live in the utter chaos when everything shuts down. Again, the faith question is not survival, but keeping your testimony alive. How do you keep building the moral infrastructure for future generations when everyone else is scrambling for mere survival?
That will be merely the first catastrophe. While society is struggling to recover, we are still heading toward the collapse of civilization when Sol and Earth together become extremely hostile to life on this planet. I offer a bare outline of that here [PDF]. Do your convictions witness to the truth of such a thing? What does it demand of your faith? How should we live, knowing that all of this is coming?
I assure you, the current trend toward political and economic tribulation is actually a rather small threat by comparison. Most of what shows up in the news and alt-news is speculation on truly petty concerns. Most of you reading this will be alive to see the incomprehensible disasters from solar disruptions.
It’s all just chasing after the wind.
Always liked Malachi, though I haven’t read it in a while. I like that it can be read once or twice on the commode.