In a day and age of sound bites, tweets, and constant emergency news tickers scrolling at the bottom of the television screen, we are trained to engage the 'now'. Add to this the remarkable privileges our various technologies afford us and we've come to expect everything in our lives to be fast, tidy, efficient, and pretty much under our control. However, just below the surface there is an uneasiness that beckons us to a journey of deeper reflection. And for some, tragedy, suffering, and doubt have catapulted us into this journey, unprepared. In whatever way we find our entrance into this journey of deeper reflection we realize that, in fact, this world eludes our control. Life is not tidy and efficient. Our greatest wisdom is limited, our most profound pleasures are elusive, and our toil feels wearisome. As grim as it may feel, this experience is a gift and Ecclesiastes invites us to deeper reflection upon this gift, pointing us ultimately to remember our Creator and Redeemer.

As author David Gibson notes "The book of Ecclesiastes is one of God's gifts to help us live in the real world. It's a book in the Bible that gets under the radar of our thinking and acts like an incendiary device to explode our make-believe games and jolt us into realizing that everything is not as clean and tidy as the "let's-pretend" world suggests". 

For us to pursue our mission of whole-life discipleship we must embrace this journey of deeper reflection. I invite you to lean in as we join the Teacher of Ecclesiastes on this necessary journey.