Just Passing Through…

1-55pm

My day today has been punctuated with sad, bad and difficult news.  A listener called to say her son died yesterday. Another called to say cancer had returned.  The first is in shock and grieving. The second is praying for a miracle.  These life-changing, devastating events suddenly put life into perspective…it highlights what’s really important.  It’s very difficult to know what to say to people when these things happen.  All I can do is show my concern and pray for them. God is with them. He will comfort them and strengthen them.   And one thing I know for sure: this earthly world, in which we live  is not all there is. We are only passing through.

In the 5th and final message of Andy Stanley’s series on Time, he reflects on the book of Ecclesiastes and the 29 times Solomon says, “Under the Sun”. These are just a few of the phrases where ‘Under the Sun’ appears in the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes:

• “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
• “When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
• “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.”

Not exactly encouraging dialogue!!

The conclusion that Andy Stanley draws from Solomon’s lengthy diatribe about the futility of life is that there is another life ‘above the sun’ if you like. Outside the confines of our ‘under the sun’ world, there is something better, where the verses above may be changed to read:

~ “I have  not yet seen all the things that are done above the sun; all of them are meaningful, far from a chasing after the wind.”                 ~ “When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningful, far from a chasing after the wind; everything was gained above the sun.”
~ “So I loved life, because the work that is done above the sun was glorious to me.”

And so we look forward, knowing that one day we will experience that full and abundant extravagance of ‘over the sun’ – eternity…. where Jesus is and because we believe in Him & trust Him with our lives ‘under the sun’ , we will enjoy all the pleasure of life above and beyond the pitiful, painful realm of this world.

Here is where you can listen to the whole message…

Andy Stanley Message Under the Sun

Today I visited Granny, taking with me the wedding photos of Stacey and Adrian. Tomorrow they celebrate their 4th wedding anniversary. No doubt they will do something special. They are still in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and are due home in 2 months. We will have lots to celebrate then!

She enjoyed that!

So while we are hanging out, ‘under the sun’ best plan is to hang onto the Lord,  being made new in the attitude of our minds (Ephesians 4:23). Stay positive.

Hanging out – Hanging on!

God bless you loads!

Thanks Trish for posting this on Facebook…

In His Grip,

Helga xx 🙂