Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the starts, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened.

And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;

Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: Because man goeth to his long home (passes away), and the mourners go about the streets:

Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl broken, or the pitcher broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.

Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity.”

I know that is quite lengthy, that is one of those passages that doesn’t separate very well. We lose much of the overall meaning and the exceptional beauty of the words.

Of all ever written, to me, that is the most beautiful.

It is about life and it is about death; it covers all the areas in between and the times and seasons that death comes individually.

It so perfects the beauty of those stages of life, if we live a long life and face heartache and loss, making us aware that sometimes in those long lives we reach the point through those hard times, sad times, and just bad times that we have no pleasure in our days.

That can happen to anyone, call it depressions, sadness, funk whatever name you choose to use, most have a one point, or another felt that hopelessness and sorrow.

I have used this passage in posts past concerning grief, it was on my heart today for another purpose.

I want to use it for the encouragement it brings.

King Solomon had quite the life, literally had every single thing that he desired.

God had blessed him with incredible wisdom, fabulous wealth, peace for his kingdom, there was nothing he lacked.

Money doesn’t buy happiness, idleness breeds temptation, being human that was the snare that snagged him. he fell to the same giant that had caused his dad to stumble that giant was not Goliath, it was lust, his desire for women.

The man could have literally worn a tee shirt that read “So many women, so little time.”

He also knew not to give in to that temptation but give in he did and in giving in he married many, many pagan women that turned his heart away from God as he did everything asked of him to please these women.

At the end of it all, he realized, not only his failures but also how short life is and how much of that life he had spent pursing desires that meant nothing in the end.

I really am not getting into Solomon with this, just wanted to get a little background, he had everything, it did not make him happy and all the riches in the world will never stop the hands of time.

Time we will never stop but sometimes we find that the circumstances of life has stopped us.

Coming up on the ages, such as is the verse, when we are young, we never stop to think about anything any of these things but once time starts kicking in and many find themselves caregivers, empty nesters, injured or disabled it can be overwhelming to even try to remember back to our former selves who felt we were so invincible that we could conquer the world.

Relationship loss, job loss, illness, injury, not to even mention grief as the years mount will send us into that mental state that Solomon so eloquently described.

There is the key, it is a state, it is not the state in which God intends for us to be held captive.

Captive to pain, fear, disillusionment without any real hope that tomorrow will different, much less having hope and actual plans for the future.

That is not God’s plans for us.

The enemy is the only one who rejoices when we are burdened down, wounded, and have no idea where to turn or even how to begin to find ourselves again.

God does. He knew our beginning from our ending, he knew our every struggle, every tear, and every time that we would feel so defeated that we would feel as though we would never be able to get up.

That is the feeling that Solomon described, it is a feeling.

As hard as it may be to fathom, as long as we have breath, we have the opportunity to begin again.

The choice to do so is up to us, we will not miss out of heaven or forfeit our rewards in the afterlife by living in a deadened state.

But we will miss out on the next chapter of our lives that God has already written in his plans, but he is not going to pull us out of our chairs, remove our blank stares and fill us with instant joy, we must take that first step.

If we take the first step, pray and seek him and ask him to help us out of the pit, he will and as we take that first step with his guidance, he can show us paths we had never noticed and open doors that we had never seen.

Once we ask him and make a conscious decision to want change, he can truly remove every burden and supernaturally fill us with joy unspeakable.

Regardless of how he choose to help us, we have assurance that he will.

Our passage also adminishes us to not forget God while enjoying our young, carefree ways, because we will have to depend on him ever the more in our older age as we do face these evil days, of death and sorrow, and unwanted change.

We are also warned of the depression that can sit in, when we feel that we have no hope, no desire to do anything, no joy in our days but it does not say that our days end there.

We could all die tomorrow or we may live to be one hundred but what if at the end of that one hundred years we find ourselves as the passage above.

What if we spent year after year frozen in time, or in a time and after all those years realize the true beauty and happiness we completely missed.

John 10:10: ” The thief cometh not, but for to kill, and to steal, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Proverbs 3:6: “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

Psalms 143:8: “Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.”

Psalms 30:2;”O LORD, my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.”

Psalms 30:5: “For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

Psalms 30:11: “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded (clothed) me with gladness.”

Psalms 18:36: “Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.”

Jeremiah 42:3 ” That the LORD thy God may shew (show) us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.”

That gives us quite a bit to ponder and pray, don’t give up, don’t let the enemy keep you from the future God has planned

Seek him and ask for that direction, try new things, do new things, even if it’s only one thing it’s a start and it’s the first step on that new path.

If we spend our days in constant sadness longing for the time which was, we will never know the joys of the time which lies ahead.

Make every effort to seek out joy and live life before that golden bowl breaks.

Love & Peace till next time! Thank you for reading and being part of my new thing, the evening post!

Φλογιζω NBJ 2026/Rev. N Brown Johnson