Life Lessons I

My friend walked in one Sunday fresh from his rowdy, ten-year high school reunion. Most of his classmates had been making the same poor choices to the same bad rap music they had in high school—only now they had money to buy better beer and didn’t need a fake ID. But another friend assured us that reunions got better with time. By the 20th, some were still trying to show off their awesome lives. But the party had settled down, and people seemed to have matured, chatting about work and showing photos of their kids. The maturity process had continued by the 30th reunion. Raising teens, career disappointments, bouts with cancer, divorces, burying parents—these events had instilled a deeper humility in the graduates. At the 40th, the number was smaller, but the conversation was sweeter and more meaningful. The old “cliques” were forgotten now; everyone finally realized that they had been the same all along. There was a tender unity among the aging men and women as they joked about aches and pains, bragged on their grand-kids, and remembered classmates who had died, grateful just to be there. I can’t imagine how tender the 50th reunion must be!

Life has a way of teaching us the most important lessons. In this section, Solomon gives us a head start on four of these.

Life Lesson 1: Fear the Lord (6:10–12). It’s the fundamental life lesson: there is a God and it’s not me. This is God’s world. He set the terms long before we got here and has declared them in his Word. God made me in his image, to flourish under his good and loving authority. He calls me to be reconciled to him through faith in his Son, Jesus, to obey his commands, and to trust his plan as a wise Father. This is God’s design for my life and yours. I can get on board with it, or I can experience a lot of unnecessary pain. Either way, he will still be God. Many of us waste a lot of years refusing to acknowledge that we are not God! We rebel against his commands, grumble at his Providence, and dig in our heels at his discipline. But our arms are too short to box with God. Disputing with God’s authority is like disputing gravity and then trying to prove my point by jumping off a bridge! God is the infinite Creator; I am a shadow on the wall: small, weak, fleeting, so limited. But if I live in the fear of the Lord, I find he is a compassionate Father.

Life Lesson 2: Focus on character (7:1–4) That’s the message binding all of these cryptic proverbs together. Long-term character is worth more than short-term comfort (7:1). That's why, if you can choose between a day at the spa or reaching the end of your life with a good name forged in adversity—pick the good name! This is also why the day of death matters more than the day of birth. No one knows how you will turn out when you are born: you could be a blessing or a curse! On the day of your death, we will know. The priority of character also means that funerals are better (or at least more productive) than feasts. Feasts are fun! But if I only party, I'll never face the great realities of life: life is short, death is coming, and I have one shot to live for God’s glory. Funerals confront me with these truths and prompt me to consider my ways. The wise go to the house of mourning and lay its lessons to heart.

Focusing on character also changes my perspective on pain (7:3–4). Nobody likes pain! We want to do all we can to avoid it. When we can't avoid it, we want to grumble about it and get through it as quickly as we can. But think about the times in your life when you grew the most, matured the most, drew nearest to God: pain is probably in every story. In the hands of a gracious God, pain is productive (James 1:2–4). It is the forge in which God conforms our character to the image of his Son. This does not mean that we need to seek pain out or pretend that we like it. But we can maintain quiet confidence that it is not in vain.

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church