Keep calm and carry on

If a ruler’s anger rises against you, do not leave your post; calmness can lay great offences to rest. Ecclesiastes 10: 4 NIV

If the temper of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place [or show a resisting spirit]; for gentleness and calmness prevent or put a stop to great offenses. Ecclesiastes 10: 4 Amplified

I am sure you will have seen one of the Keep Calm and Carry On posters, T shirts, mugs and so on that are prevalent everywhere nowadays. They and all the subsequent spin offs in the Keep Calm range are based on a Second World War Ministry of Information poster that was prepared in case of imminent invasion. Funnily enough these posters were never used and it was only because a book shop owner found one of the few remaining ones in 2000 and put it up in his shop that led to its current fame.

 This verse from Ecclesiastes could be wonderfully illustrated with a Keep Calm and Carry On poster.  The context of this verse is that of a king or ruler losing his temper with a courtier or servant who has not actually done anything wrong. The courtier is advised not to stamp out of the king’s presence in anger and offence but to stay where they are and keep calm. This we are assured will lay great offences to rest.

Few of us will be in this particular situation of serving an earthly king but the same principle can be applied to those who have some authority over us whether our boss at work or the leaders at church. Too often when we are grieved and offended by false accusation or just a misunderstanding, the first temptation is to storm out of the room or reply angrily to what is being said.

However, the same principle that the Teacher advises can be applied here. It is better to stay put and keep calm. Often that in itself will calm the whole situation down. Leaving in a huff inflames an already inflammatory situation.  Calmly explaining yourself if asked is fine but yelling and justifying oneself, does not help. In fact I think justifying yourself is often unnecessary. If the accusation or comment is false, the truth always comes out in time. God will always justify you and if you know that you have done nothing wrong, then you can rest in that assurance.  

The Teacher of Ecclesiastes, who was probably Solomon, would have had a kingly perspective on this and he knew what he was talking about.  Sometimes the pressure of kingship or leadership will lead to a king or leader speaking out inappropriately and maybe falsely maligning someone. He was not condoning it but showing the best way to deal with a situation like this.

Keeping calm, showing respect and carrying on shows great dignity on your part and you in turn will be respected.

 

Let my words be few

Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.

When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfil it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfil your vow. It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfil it.  Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. Ecclesiastes 5: 2, 4 – 6

 When I first read these words from Ecclesiastes, I did not take into account the significance of making a hasty vow. I was more concerned about the problems of hasty words and the problems they can cause.  However I kept being drawn back to the matter of a vow and when I looked into this further, I realised that God views the keeping of vows as a very grave matter. There are many instances especially in the Old Testament of the importance of fulfilling your vow. 

Nowadays I think we rarely make vows in the same way but we can make hasty promises or deals with God and these are equally important matters. Words along the lines of ‘O God if only you will …… (fill in your own blank) then I will ….. (again fill in your own blank).’ Unfortunately what may happen is that when God keeps his side of the promise, we forget our part. We may be thankful that God has acted in the situation that was troubling us but we just move on.

God however has not forgotten and a vow or promise must be fulfilled; we must keep our part of the bargain.  Unfortunately it is very common nowadays that people do not keep their promises.  Even Christians cannot be relied upon to keep their word which is tragic.  We should be the most reliable and dependable people.

I hate it when people make promises to me that I know they cannot or will not keep. My philosophy is ‘if you don’t mean it, don’t say it.’ We are under no compunction to say or promise or vow anything, so we must be careful what we say or promise.

Broken promises and broken vows break trust and therefore damage relationships. I think that is why it is vital that we fulfil vows with God. Take Hannah, who made a vow with God that if he gave her a son, she would give the baby to serve the Lord. Suppose that when Samuel was born, Hannah reneged on her vow. She would always feel guilty and her relationship with God would be forever damaged. I know a pastor who said he would do something for me and didn’t. Next time I saw him, he could hardly look me in the face or greet me. Broken vows break relationships.

Making a vow with God is extremely important but so is a promise with someone else. I think that is why Jesus said, ‘Again, you have heard it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord’. But I tell you do not swear an oath at all … simply let your yes be yes and your no, no.  (Matthew 5: 33 – 37).

We must let our words be few when making vows and promises so we can keep them and maintain unity and trust with God and our family and friends.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Is life meaningless?

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.

My heart took delight in all my work and this was the reward for all my labour.

Yet when I had 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.    Ecclesiastes 2: 10 – 11

 There can be times when we look at our lives and wonder whether we have achieved anything worthwhile. The writer of Ecclesiastes, thought by many to be King Solomon, evaluated his life and despite all that he had achieved (and Solomon achieved more than anyone else I Kings 4: 29 - 34), he wrote that it was all meaningless. In fact he says, ‘for a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless (2:21).

 At some point in your life, you may realise you are not going to do some of the things that you thought you might do or even wanted to. These can be hard pills to swallow. Perhaps you have not got married, had children, got the promotion you expected. Perhaps an accident, disability, ill health, divorce or redundancy have stopped you achieving what you thought of as your heart’s desire. Nevertheless that does not mean your life has been meaningless or worhtwhile.

We can look at our life and draw some wrong conclusions. If we evaluate our lives by the world’s standards, very few of us will have any achievements to commend ourselves. The world only values the outwardly successful, famous or beautiful. However if we look at our lives from God’s perspective with an eternal mind set, things look very different. God values the faithful, trustworthy, honest, diligent, persevering, kind, loving, joyful, peaceful person. What matters most is not our achievements but our fruit. 

 Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy says of those people who see their life as a failure; much of the distress of these good people comes from a failure to realize that their life lies before them; that they are coming to the end of their present life, life ‘in the flesh’ is of little significance. What is of significance in the kind of person they have become. Circumstances and other people are not in control of an individual’s character or the life that lies endlessly before us in the kingdom of God.

For the Christian, this life is not all there is. This is just the start and we look forward to a life in eternity when all things will be restored. The best really is to come and we must not look at our life or anyone else’s and see it as meaningless or a failure. We have a wonderful future with God and we must always keep our eye on that truth for God has incredible things beyond our imagination here on earth ready for us when our earthly life finishes. Our life truly is going from glory to glory.

 

Spiritual thermostats

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might Ecclesiastes 9: 10

An unfortunate side effect of doing great things with God rather than for God can be a tendency to sit around waiting for ‘instructions’ from God. This leads to spiritual paralysis. God knows our schedules and the things we have to do whether it be work, domestic duties, care for the family and so on. What God wants is an ear tuned to him throughout our day and a heart set to be obedient to do those things that he may call us to which come across our path.

Helen Keller the lady born blind and deaf who so successfully championed women’s rights told the Tennessee Legislature that when she was young, she longed to do great things and could not because of her disabilities; so she decided to do small things in a great way. That is a fantastic attitude. If we want to do great things with God, the way we do the small things will pave the path for greater things.

 The way we do our job, how we drive the car, the way we talk, our attitude to the washing up and other less interesting tasks will train us for anything God wants us to do. This verse from Ecclesiastes encourages us that no matter what is before us, let’s do it with might or excellence.

Our attitude should be that today is full of possibilities. We love to please God more than people and we know that our prayers are making a difference. We have a good attitude to those in authority over us and try our best to be punctual and give our best effort is what we are doing.  We are enthusiastic and a source of encouragement to those round us.

 Steve Backlund says we should be spiritual thermostats not spiritual thermometers. Spiritual thermometers merely reflect the current spiritual temperature. Spiritual thermostats set the spiritual temperature. We can too easily fall into what is happening around us, going with the flow but spiritual thermostats change things. They raise the bar in terms of expectations and attitudes and it is amazing how often people will rise to it.

One of the clubs we play bowls against has a captain who likes to tell dubious jokes in his little half time talk. By gentle persuasion, not criticism or judgement, we have managed to get him to tell less smutty jokes. It is a small thing but it changes the temperature. Excellent attitudes at work encourage others to the same higher levels. Less excessive eating and drinking habits encourage others not to over indulge either and not swearing can have an amazing effect on the people around us.

We really can change the spiritual temperature with excellent attitudes in the small things of life and as we keep busy doing what is before us, God will surprise us with the opportunities he opens up to do great things with him.