- Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. -
Stories are meant to show how humans overcome adversity, tragedy, or simply change their lives for the better.
At times we lie to ourselves and believe it is plot that drives them forward, but this is irrelevant if what I mentioned above doesn’t occur.
Why? A description of events is not entertaining, yet it could still be considered “plot.” No one wants to hear the description of a mountain succumbing to erosion.
The only way they would want to hear that story is if human emotion was personified into the mountain or the events somehow related to the pain we fill in our own lives.
The actual description of the events themselves? Not entertaining or interesting, and I’ll pay money to not listen to them.
Have you ever listened to a story that left you angry or frustrated?
Sometimes for me, it’s a technical problem. A hole in the plot hole is present, such as a new piece of technology that solves all of the movie’s problems conveniently ignored by the protagonists.
Perhaps it’s the insertion of politics or moralizing, changing art into a form of propaganda.
Or perhaps it’s that the story doesn’t know why it exists. Many of us have forgotten as well.
The quintessential version of this for me is the movie No Country for Old Men. I won’t spoil it, but the tension of the story is never resolved.
Why? What’s the purpose of never “finishing” the story or providing a pay off? Well, it’s done because the artist believes it’s a statement on how life actually is.
This verse in many ways strikes me like the movie. It doesn’t matter if you train, study, or have talent. Time and chance deal the cards.
Some day you are going to pull a bad hand.
As frustrating as that is, that arbitrariness found within life is true. You can be the fittest athlete on the football team, but that means nothing if a drunk driver careens into your lane.
This makes life seem unfair. It also makes it impossible for some to believe in a god because how could any decent god put together a world this brutal.
How can a noble and righteous god not reward sacrifice? How can he give to the man who does evil and take from the one who behaves justly?
This may seem like a tangent, but it always bothers me when Christians only put a happy face on to the tragedies of life.
It’s not that I’m jealous or believe they are lying, but have they never read Genesis?
This is a bad place to live. It’s broken and falling apart. Every room you’ve been in your entire life is filled with more tragedy than you can repair in a lifetime.
And yet, you can have hope. You can enter into the Kingdom life today and see what God is doing. You can offer Christ’s love to others and help repair or usher in that new age.
Can life be arbitrary? Yes, but God gives a clear and distinct way out of it, a choice to live for Him or our own twisted desires that lead nowhere and lie.
Everyday choose meaning.
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