The Way Of Futility

“Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.” (Ecclesiastes 1:18)

It is painful to gaze upon our true reflection
Ignorance is bliss
Which is better:
To be happily ignorant
Or to be joyfully afflicted?

As I explore the paths of wisdom
I only become more aware that I am a child who knows nothing
An ignorant babe who needs to be taught
I keep sitting up to listen
Yet, You say lay back to hear
I keep sitting up to learn
Yet, You say lay back and be taught
I reach for You to grasp You
Yet, You say drop your hands and receive
I want to strive for understanding
Yet, You say be still as You give revelation

I want to find the source of the wind
Yet, You say let it blow where it will
“Just feel the wind in your face, child”
But I want to hold it in my hand
I want to examine the wind
And You say let it be
“Observe the effects of the wind,
But do not try to grasp it.”
Yet I grasp and reach
For something that is impossible to catch
Why do I keep doing this?
Why am I compelled by futility?

Because we have been subjected to futility
You said, “From this tree do not eat”
Yet, we reached
We grasped
And when we looked down at our hands
To see what we obtained
We looked with horror
We sobbed with grief
Because we reached for You
But we only grasped our self
Our hands are full of ourselves
With no room for You
We reached for freedom
Only to be shackled by Self

For thousands of years we sat in these chains
We sat in darkness
Hands full of ourselves
Minds full of knowledge without understanding
Such is the curse of futility
We were created for knowledge
Yet we cursed ourselves with the inability to understand
What good is knowledge without understanding?
Yes, this is futility

Yet, this is when we begin to understand
To understand the depths of meaninglessness
To understand that without You, there is nothing
Without You, there is only futility
There is only chasing after a wind
That will never be caught
Because our hands cannot hold the wind
They can only hold ourselves
Or You
But we must choose one or the other

(Deut 30:19,20) This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life…

(Rom 8:19-21) For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

(John 3:6-8) That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from or where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

(Eccl 3:11,12) I have seen the burden that God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.

(Posted on Facebook 11/16/2020 Talitha Koum)