Do We Lose Touch?
December 3, 2005
“I looked on all the works that my hands had done . . . and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.” ~ Ecclesiastes 2:11
A number of years ago in Rochester, New York, 30 people competed in a charity fundraiser called a Touch-A-Thon. A new car was to be given to the person who could touch a red spot on the car for the longest time, not counting the 15-minute breaks that were allowed every 4 hours.
After four days, one man and one woman were left. But then the woman reached into her purse for a fingernail file and took her hand off the car. She lost touch and lost the prize. Oops!
King Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, also tells about losing touch - but in his case, he forfeited something of inestimable value. He had started out well by living for God, but then he began seeking personal profit, self-aggrandizement and pleasure. As he surveyed his wealth and his fame, it dawned on him that in reaching out for those things, he had let go of his contact with God, his true source of meaning and lasting happiness. No wonder he wrote “indeed all was vanity!” His case reminds me very much of the protagonist in the famous film Citizen Kane. The famous work, considered by many to be the definite cinematic masterpiece, is a complex theme of a spiritually-failed man who lives a tragic, if epic story of a ‘rags-to-riches’ child who inherited a fortune, was taken away from his humble surroundings and his father and mother. Raised by a banker, Kane became a fabulously wealthy, arrogant, and energetic newspaperman. He made his reputation as the generous, idealistic champion of the underprivileged, and set his egotistical mind on a political career, until those political dreams were shattered by the public exposure of his ill-advised ‘love-nest’ affair with a singer. Kane’s life was corrupted and ultimately self-destructed by a lust to fulfill the American dream of success, fame, wealth, power and immortality. After two failed marriages and a transformation into a morose, grotesque, and tyrannical monster, his final days were spent alone and unhappy before his death in a reclusive refuge of his own making - an ominous castle filled with innumerable possessions he acquired in an attempt to compensate for his life’s emptiness. Certainly, this underscores Solomon’s experience. A life full of success is nothing without the Pearl of Great Price who provides us the peace and perspective to enjoy it.
In this Advent season, we can examine ourselves by asking the Lord to show us in prayer if we are justifying what we do - or don’t do - while not realizing that we may no longer be living in close fellowship with the Lord? Do we need to stop worrying about trivial things and reestablish our contact with eternal values through repentance and faith? Good questions for our prayer closets in quiet time with the Father.
Our Father went to great lengths to provide us means to fellowship with Him - why would we ever choose to lose touch with Him?
Thought for meditation: If we walk with God, we’ll be out of step with the World.
By grace,
Chip+
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