- Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. -
Remember, we are not supposed to trust the speaker of this group of verses. This truth I believe is apparent, yet again, in this verse.
Why should you work hard? Well, because this is the only time you can. All those thoughts, feelings, efforts that are currently apart of your life?
Their disappearing, fading, evaporating to a state where they are no longer present, your now is a breath, a vapor on the wind.
Am I writing emo poetry or am I quoting the Bible? The answer is both, but I’m not doing justice to the Bible.
Maybe I’ve told you this story before. I almost lost my faith one day. Why? I had been doing something dangerous.
I had been reading ideas from modern day philosophers and scientists purposely trying to discredit religion, Jesus, and the Bible.
What many people do not understand is that evolution makes a lot of sense, at least it makes a lot more sense than people give it credit for.
Have you ever heard someone say, “How could random chance make all of this? It just doesn’t make any sense!”
Why I understand the impulse, it’s a misunderstanding of what evolution claims.
In Creationism, God has designed the world and everything in it. Why does it all fit? Because God as the master architect made it that way.
In Evolution, the environment is “god.” Different animals, species, and traits all compete within it and only those that work in the environment survive.
The living things are randomly generated, not the environment. It is stable and unwavering, pushing everything to conform to it.
When you begin to see evolution working in this way, which I hope to present to you as the honest way, your arguments must become more sophisticated.
I have a few of those, such as the formation of RNA, the beginning of the Universe, and the soul, but that’s not what today’s post is about.
One day, I realized that our preconceptions of right and wrong could spring out of this evolutionary design. Random personalities would adapt to the environment and produce an ethic.
It startled me. I wasn’t prepared to deal with this new information. I stared at the floor in my office for two hours and couldn’t get through the puzzle.
In walked my wife, catching me in my terror and she asked me what I was doing. I explained and she sat down with me.
It was then that I had my answer. Either morality is based in something true, or it isn’t. Either the universe has a foundation, or it does not.
If it doesn’t, then as a man who can see it, it is my job to live outside it. If it does, then I can rejoice in knowing that what I do means something.
That means something is an interesting phrase. Means something means it last, and it must last beyond me. In fact, it must be eternal.
If it ever ends, then it doesn’t mean anything. It means the foundation is cracked and going to break. It means the castles are actually on sand.
If there is an eternity, than it means in some way we are connected to it. Our thoughts, knowledge, and our work are somehow tied into that future.
And perhaps, our hands will build there.
Share this post