The Wicket Gate

Good Day! This blog post will be examining chapter nineteen of Don’t Waste your Breath by Brian Borgman titled “When the Gifts Slip Away,” which covers Ecclesiastes 12:1-8.

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them”; before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain; in the day that the watchmen of the house tremble, and mighty men stoop, the grinding ones stand idle because they are few, and those who look through windows grow dim; and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly. Furthermore, men are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags himself along, and the caperberry is ineffective. For man goes to his eternal home while mourners go about in the street.Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity!” Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 NASB 95

                  I will begin by saying that I may have taken my thoughts last week into the subject of this week. I wrote quite a bit about the prime of our lives being our whole lives. Prime is a fluid state. We may be in our prime athletically when we are young, in the prime of enjoying family in our middle age, and in the prime of enjoying the labors of our life in the later stages. Grandchildren, potentially paid off houses, traveling, and most importantly experience and wisdom from a lifetime of trials are the prime of old age.  God has a myriad of challenges and joys prepared for us in all ages. Borgman posits that as we grow older our focus changes, when we are young, we enjoy God fully through his gifts, as we grow older we enjoy God more directly. We enjoy his complete control, what he did through His Son, and our glory with Him in death. Borgman states “If old age is when the gifts start to slip away, how is that a gift? As the things of earth start to slip away, we see how important those totalizing texts are. In other words, as the temporary gifts start to fade, the external gift shines even more brightly” (191). We continue to enjoy grandchildren, marriage, family, friendship, and yet we also look toward paradise and the resurrection. Eventually we will reach an age where nearly all the gifts of earth pass away, as sad as that sounds from the earthly perspective, by that point the Holy Spirit will have worked us to complete reliance on Christ. We will be ready for glory. “As we grow old and get closer to heaven, our love to God begins to take on new dimensions, new contours, new colors, new anticipation. Old age is a gift because it forces us to ask ourselves “When the gifts slip away, do we still love the Giver supremely?”” (191).

                  We should strive for the same mindset when we are young as well. “God deserves the prime of your life” (193). We should remember our Creator, “Remember in the Bible is more than to mentally recall something. It is to reflect in a way that produces action” (192). If you are already in Christ don’t waste your breath! Too often when we are in the youthful prime of our lives we focus too much on the experiences of earth and miss the opportunity to praise God for what He has done and is doing. When we are in the middle ages of our prime we focus on our children and jobs, the sports and meetings of life. Not that we cannot do all to the glory of God! I will challenge the reader- putting off becoming a member of a church family, serving God, and drawing near to God until you graduate high school, or college, or get married, or get a job, or have kids – is poor stewardship of God’s greatest gift – your life. Wasting the prime of your life waiting until life clears up is wasting your breath. Waiting until you have achieved whatever your goals may be is wasting your prime. Prime time to draw near to God is now. Apart from Him you can do nothing (John 15:5), He is the source of all success, the almighty source of all, the source of your faith, He has carried you thus far. He deserves your first thought of the morning, last thought at night and all in between. Strive by the spirit to not let the tough school day, tough work day, rough family situations, life goals, and money matters drive a mental wedge between your heart and God, instead draw near. You need the Trinitarian Fullness of God in the prime of your life more than any other time. Sacrificing time with the body of Christ, prayer, meditation, scripture reading, journaling- will not get you ahead in your prime. Sacrificing these disciplines makes you weaker, less attuned to the Spirit, wracked with anxiety and guilt. Remember the photograph most have seen, prominent when I was growing up in the 90s- footsteps in the sand that disappear, caption something like “when the footsteps disappear, I was carrying you” – I am always like no bro, He was carrying you the whole time! We do not carry ourselves, don’t waste the prime of your life thinking you do, glorify God! In all you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord.

                  From there the Teacher provides illustrations of the end of life and death. I dare not speak to much about this time of life because I have not experienced it firsthand, and it is difficult to watch happen to loved ones. Borgman recounts “As we walked into his room at the rehab hospital, I was saddened at how weak and frail he looked. Tom was once a mighty man. His arms were strong from years of work. But as he sat there in a wheelchair, those mighty keepers of the house shook with weakness” (195). Currently I see this with my grandfather, he was mighty and strong, pillar of intellect and drive, whose work over the decades is the reason my family continued in the poultry business. Now age and sickness have weakened him, he is not defeated by any means, but the darker days of his life mentioned in Ecclesiastes are here. Yet I believe his faith is stronger than ever, if only mentally. He spent many years preaching in prisons with the Kairos ministry. I can clearly remember him preaching John 3:16 to me, he is a natural salesman, not that he was ever “selling” the gospel he was and is always prepared to share Christ with anyone anywhere. He is ready and waiting for his appointed time for paradise. The power of drawing near to Christ in the later prime of life, comfort and anticipation of paradise, eternal rest. Be prepared for this time of our lives, others will see your struggle with failing flesh and glorify God. Why?  Because as our flesh fails, we will more and more be wholly reliant on the Trinitarian Fullness of God, and our families and friends will see and glorify God. Paradise and a perfected body on judgment day awaits those who have faith in Him.

                  Last, is death. My aunt passed away a month or so ago, a life well lived in Christ. A beautiful life full of joy as well as times of extreme grief. I had the privilege of praying at the funeral, to be able to pray to God expressing our joy that she was with Him in paradise and to pray thanking God for her faith and for guiding her through life to the end. To be able to do this was a blessing from God. We still mourn her passing, but as we talked about in previous posts, it is godly mourning. She is not with us, and the void brings sadness, yet she is in paradise, and that brings great joy. We should live life striving by the power of the Spirit with the end in mind, leave all those remaining glorifying God for your life and your salvation. Remember all of the past posts, we can only see our time and perhaps a glimpse of our children and grandchildren’s time, we cannot see any further than that. How we lived our lives in faith, relying on Christ, not wasting our breath, this will live on for a few generations. But the Word of the Lord will endure forever (Isaiah 40:8). My point to the reader- make the impact you have in your time, start today by glorifying God and enjoying Him now. The sovereign hand of God has not told you your appointed time, you are guaranteed old age. As you are currently living and reading this you are running out of time. Pray for strength, ability, knowledge, and the prudence to use what He has given you. Be good stewards of what God has given you to steward- including your life- remember it is all His, He is the owner. You are only the caretaker. Focus on teaching your children about Christ, attentive to opportunities to share Christ with others, living life in a way that reflects Christ’s glory. I slipped in to a recap! Yet the recap is necessary, because if we strive onward in these things, people won’t have to lie at our funeral. They can genuinely glorify God for your life,and draw near to Him themselves as a result. God using your life as a means of grace to others from birth to death (Ephesians 2:9).