Do you any of you have any pet peeves? It's funny what bothers some people and not others, and vice versa. One of my huge pet peeves is cliche quotes, such as the one that's the title of this article. There are some real annoying doozies out there. Here's a few, "Don't worry, today is a new day!" Well, duh, I know that, thanks for the great insight. How about, "You know, the grass is always greener..." Yep, sometimes it is!
This one in the title I've heard quite a bit lately for some reason. Maybe it's with the political climate and all that jazz, but as Christians, this phrase should really bug us. What's sad, is that it's actually used most by US! It comes from Ecclesiastes 1:9 that says, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes is part of the "wisdom" literature, a series of 3 books; Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. People have struggled with these writings for centuries and of course often, as the critic in Ecclesiastes says, it's all "meaningless." A word that's not translated well, but doesn't mean life is without meaning, it means that life's meaning is always a mystery. It goes back to trust, as I wrote about in my last article. The way we use the phrase, "There's nothing new under the sun", is in the same critical way that the critic in Ecclesiastes is approaching His view of life. The message of Ecclesiastes is truly one of hope. It's message is that you have to "let go", otherwise you will drive yourself crazy with the unpredictability of life's ups and downs. If we truly believe in a God that brings about new life, and creates from nothing, then we must believe that that Spirit living in us brings about fresh ideas, and dreams new ways to approach life and its daily challenges. May we not buy into the cynical, and approach life with cliches. May we draw on the creator in each of us to look at life with fresh, hopeful eyes. May we continue to bring God's kingdom into full existence. Chris White
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October 2017
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