Chasing the Wind

To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 2:26

Have you ever chased after the wind? Have you ever caught it?

Eight times in the Book of Ecclesiastes the writer, most believe it was King Solomon, uses the phrase "chase after the wind" to describe useless human activity: wasted time and effort. He was a keen observer of people and wrote a lot about our relationship with God...how it is and how it should be. It was true then and it is still true today. We spend a lot of time "chasing the wind."

When we are out of relationship with God we waste a lot of time on the things of the world. We worry about whether we are popular, how others view us, and whether we are cool. We worry about who likes us and who does not. We worry about how we look, what we wear, and who we hang with. Do we look like others, do we act like others, do we fit in, do we belong? Are we cool?

Our parents worry about making money, living in the right neighborhood, driving the right car, or going to the "right" church. Do they know the right people, are their children in the right school, on the right team, and in the right group. Adults spend lots of money on looking younger, looking thinner, or climbing the social ladder. They worry about how they look, what they wear, and who they socialize with. Do they look like others, do they act like others, do they fit in, do they belong? Are they cool? They seem a lot like us.

Maybe we should start when we are young working on pleasing God rather than ourselves. You know, that part about loving God and loving others...like it says in Matthew. Maybe if we spent more time pleasing God and loving others we would spend less time worrying about our own needs. Perhaps if we work more on walking in His LIGHT we would not feel the agony of chasing after things we can not see or feel. We might begin to feel the overwhelming peace and encouragement of the "wind of God."

If we spend less time "chasing the wind" of ourselves and more time "riding the wind" of God we will begin to receive the wisdom, knowledge and happiness that is promised to all of us.