Love Transform the Vanities of Life

Love Transform the Vanities of Life

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,

Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!

~ Ecclesiastes 1: 2

Is it not true that in spite of scientific, technological and other advances made, man is still subject to birth and death, joy and sorrow, peace and war, health and sickness, wealth and poverty, hope and despair, and courage and fear? And are we not still experiencing hate and love, dichotomy and discrimination? Without doubt, life can seems to be a meaningless endless cycle of birth and death in which sorrows outweigh joy and happiness and disappointments predominates over satisfaction?

However love has the power to transform the vanities of life into the glory of eternity with God. This love enables us to see the image and likeness of our God and creator in every man irrespective of the color of his skin.

If you take the time to become aware of the plans that the almighty God has for mankind, life is no longer the vanities that the preacher eloquently expressed but a path to eternal glory in the Kingdom of heaven. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is that “New thing” under the sun in which the Preacher’s visions in Ecclesiastes was not privileged to see and we are custodian of this transfiguration of humanity from death to eternal life.

In order for our life to be transformed from the mundane expectations of the Preacher to a new and exciting one, in which we are no longer limited by our earthly existence, but thrilled about the plans of God in counting us worthy of eternity with him, we MUST love God with our whole being and love our neighbors as ourselves! Love is not vanity because God is love and love is God!

The Preacher in Ecclesiastes wrote down the following visions after a thorough assessment of the plight of man on earth;

Ecclesiastes

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
    vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
    at which he toils under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
    but the earth remains forever.
 The sun rises and the sun goes down,
    and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
    and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
    and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea,
    but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
    there they flow again.
All things are full of weariness;
    a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
    nor the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be,
    and what has been done is what will be done,
    and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
    “See, this is new”?
It has been already in the ages before us.

~ Ecclesiastes 1: 2-10

On several levels, the Preacher or Qoheleth practically expresses the sentiment that any human being is capable of feeling based on physical experiences. Life can be vanity or useless especially for the downtrodden, oppressed and demoralized members of our society. And it can also be useless for the wealthy and powerful in that after death, they cannot inherit the wealth they are leaving behind nor are they able to buy over death with their money or power in order to enjoy life without end.

One of the most glaring examples in our contemporary societies of this element of vanity which can easily change to hopelessness and uselessly bleak visions of life is evident in the relationship that exists between the police and the people of color in the country, the attitude of some rich people treating the poor without compassion or dignity, and on a generalized basis the divergence and negative perspectives that permeate the dichotomy seen among the White and the people of color in America. For how long are we going to be judgmental, discriminatory and hateful of people that does not look or act like us? These too substantiate the vanity of life!

Until we begin to see ourselves as equally created by God and that nobody is superior or better than any other person and most importantly the color of one’s skin should never be the basis to deal kindly and lovingly or otherwise our society shall never know true peace, because in our blindness, we have failed to see the plans of God for us all, which are not dependent on the color of our skin! Eternity is open to all and not based on who we are, were we come from or what kind of color of skin we possess.

Racism and mutual Mistrust

The ways and fashion in which the police system was set up either by commission or omission in the country as it relates to dealing with the Blacks are deplorable, dogmatic and inimical to say the least. The generalized attitude of the police toward the Blacks is simply that of “You are guilty until proven innocent” which is completely different from the yardstick applied universally. As a result, a Black is more inclined to be found guilty for a crime that he did not commit as have been shown over and again. The fact that Negroes make up about 13% of the total population and account for nearly 42% of prison inmates clearly demonstrated that something must be fundamentally wrong with both the policing and the criminal justice system.

This conclusion was derived in part sequel to the advancement in technology such as DNA which has exonerated almost 99.9% of Blacks convicted for crimes they did not commit. This is very hard to bear! And today we see evidences from Police body cameras that in most cases show a complete contrast to the narrative we are made to swallow as the gospel truth. Do we really need a body camera to do the right thing, namely protecting every American lives irrespective of the color he may carry? And again lies another vanity of our life here on earth.

Racism, which is the discrimination on the basis of the color of an individual skin, is pathetic, useless and pitiable doctrine that has degenerated to the point of usurping even the law of God to justify the perpetuation of hatred and other forms of myopic sentiments, and to the extent that the lives of the victims are no more as important as those attached to animals! Racial discrimination and bigotry that are based on unnecessary and useless cultures or habits such as the way an individual looks like as compared to the quality of his characters are clear disregard to the law of God, which admonishes us to love God with all our heart and love our neighbors as ourselves.

The most regrettable thing about racism in America is the gross ignorance of the perpetrators who failed to see in their detrimental actions and inaction against the Black as fundamentally due to a racist mind! Some of these fellows were born into the family that practices this form of prejudice and becomes a second- nature even without their realizing it!

And to such fellows, the argument surrounding the discrimination on the basis of the color of the skin seems strange and uncalled for. In fact it is almost similar to the culture of genital mutilation that the practitioners never see any evil in the fact that there is serious health, mental and physical trauma associated with such an archaic tradition.

On the other hand, Blacks have become skeptical of both the police structure and the status quo of racial intolerance and the consequences that abound. In their despair, majority are not police friendly, seeing these officers as enemies because their actions which speaks louder than words

The Black man that committed the same crime as a White fellow in America might get almost ten times more severe penalty, making one to continue to wonder what kind of judicial or justice system are we talking about? These scenarios are not limited to the police and justice system alone, but like cancer spreads into other areas of human living such as schools or education, businesses, employment and the pursuit of happiness! We see the vanities of life in such scenarios as the Preacher rightly exemplified in the Book of Ecclesiastes.

There are other Whites that suffer discrimination too! There used to be a time that if you are White and at the same time a Catholic, you are more prompt to being bullied, offered less support by the status quo then and easily intimidated if you dare dream to pursue political career.

These are facts and under such state of affairs it is very easy to conclude that life can be very useless indeed, especially when after having gone through all these various forms of discriminations and threat to your lives and even visibly witnessing the deaths of innocent people in the hands of those meant to protect them such as the police and the judicial system and the generality of the people irrespective of the color of your skin!

The Resurrection Changes Everything

But if there is no resurrection of the dead,

not even Christ has been raised; 

and if Christ has not been raised,

then our preaching is vain;

your faith also is vain

~1 Corinthians 15: 13-14

In the monotony of life, where the despondent does not see anything “New under the sun” and is tempted to conclude that life is useless after all, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ bear a different testimony to the reality of life! The resurrected life is spiritual and does not have the limitations of our earthly body and without doubt, that includes the color of our skin.

Physical death is no longer the “necessary evil” end that humanity anticipates, in which the rich detest as deprivation of pleasure and the poor look forward to as a means of being extricated from their burden, but a transition to either eternal life in the Kingdom of God for those who love God and love their neighbor as themselves or eternal condemnation in hell for the perpetrators of evil and denial of the existence of God.

Under the sun, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a clear contrast to the bleak landscape outlook that the author of Ecclesiastes has painted for us as reflected above! In fact, while there seems to be nothing to be excited about life, given what he saw as the meaningless endless cycle of life and death leading to nothing, Jesus Christ’s resurrection challenges us to focus on the brimming potential that everyday offers to those who believe and see life no longer with the ordinary visions of the Preacher, but through the eyes of faith in God. We are recreated everyday by God, molding us as a potter does to the clay with the hope of preparing us eternity with him.

Jesus Christ who is new under the sun has new things he wants to show us; new areas in our lives that needs modification in order to bring glorification to the name of the God we serve, new experiences that are necessary to grow our love and compassion for one another and new challenges and opportunities that will ultimately make us a new creation ready to become the instrument of peace in the midst of war, hope in despair and faith where doubts prevail.

And finally when our earthly lives are over, we are confident that because we have made the Lord God our habitation by loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves eternal glory awaits us through the power resident in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And in heaven we shall no longer see ourselves as Black or White, but simply like the angels in perpetual worship of our God in all his glory and splendor unthinkable by human imagination.

Conclusion:

In the midst of the prevailing challenges that we are daily subjected to, be it the threat to our freedom or lives or properties, whether it is our being hated sometimes for no justifiable reason other than the color of our skin, or the way we talk or where we come from, Jesus Christ is the ultimate solution to our needs to live a life that will bring glory to God. Let us look up to the Christian values of love for all mankind and put it into practice today!

Life is therefore not useless at all, because true life goes beyond just the physical attributes of being born and dying, in fact, life is glorious when we see Jesus Christ in every facet of our lives here on earth.

If we desire heaven which is our ultimate destination as children of God, we must live according to the tenet of God; namely love the Lord your God with all your hearts and love your neighbor as yourself.

Love is the key to visualizing the usefulness of life because in love we find God and in God love abound and if love flourish so is the blessed assurance of eternal life.

We must work for love, with love and through love so that the world may know that we are children of the almighty and ever living God and true disciples of Jesus Christ who died for our salvation through the act of love. Let us emulate Jesus and begin to change of communities beginning with our homes, one person at a time until when Jesus Christ will come again to take us to our final home in heaven.

We shall overcome, but with love trust and hope in the almighty God, not in hate or violence or by our human understanding!

Prayer

Dear God,

Make me into a new creation today and let me become your instrument to bring love, peace and hope, faith, truth and justice to all that I encounter. Open my heart to see your image and likeness in others irrespective of the color of their skins.

Help me to focus on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and know that life is not vanity upon vanities and that physical death is only a transition and not the end of my toil.

Help me to overcome evil with goo, hate with love and pride with humility.

And above all, count me worthy of your Kingdom of eternal life and glory.

All these I ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

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