by Julie Zine Coleman @JulieZColeman

Getting old stinks. Nearing the end of his life, my ninety-one year old father-in-law took a fall and landed in the hospital. That meant medical tests, shots, and other intrusive treatments. He was miserable. He just wanted to go home and be left in peace.

Dad had been a faithful, effective servant for the Lord. But at the time, all he’d done for Him seemed a distant memory to me. I began to think about how futile life can seem.

Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes within the context of a fabulously successful reign. Yet despite all his great accomplishments, Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes are full of disillusionment and despair. “For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun?” he wrote. “Everything is vanity.”

In his later years, Solomon was struggling to find meaning in life on earth.

Being a writer can bring those same feelings of futility. We write our hearts out, submit, and get rejected. Publishers sound so encouraging at conference meetings, but when we reach out afterward, we hear nothing but crickets. After years of banging our head against the wall, we begin to wonder if it is all pointless. Where is the meaning in it all?

At the beginning of his reign, Solomon’s priority and focus was on God. Solomon led Israel to worship and love the Lord for many years. But somewhere along the way, he got side-tracked. His focus became a pursuit of the blessings, rather than the blessing giver.  Prosperity, knowledge, and wisdom became an end in themselves. Solomon had lost sight of the goal.

Meaning does not come from what blessings we are given. Meaning comes from Christ himself. Feeling as if everything is meaningless is a symptom of a departure from God. We have lost the link between our writing and our true purpose. The whole publishing thing becomes about us.

Jesus told his disciples: “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” (John 15:7) As Christians, we like to claim the second part of that promise. Yet we flagrantly neglect the first. Our job is not to pursue the blessings. Our job is to abide in Christ. When our focus becomes all about getting published, writing a best seller, or developing an impressive platform, we have started down a road that ends in despair and meaninglessness.

One night Steve and I entered Dad’s hospital room to find him fumbling with the remote control for the T.V. “What channel are you trying to find?” Steve asked him.

“The religion channel. I want to hear the name of the Lord preached,” Dad answered. Even in his overwhelmingly depressing circumstances, Dad knew where the key to contentment lay.

Jesus told his disciples, “I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).  That abundance has nothing to do with what we achieve or positive circumstances. Our meaning will forever only come from within our relationship with the Lord. No matter what we accomplish.

“…let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith.”                                 Hebrews 12:1-2 NASB

Julie Zine Coleman is an award-winning author, speaker, and member of the Pastoral Team at New Hope Chapel. She is the managing editor for the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association’s devotional website, Arise Daily. Julie holds a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies and has authored four books including Unexpected Love: God’s Heart Revealed through Jesus’ Conversations with Women and On Purpose: Understanding God’s Freedom for Women through Scripture, which was named The Golden Scrolls Book of the Year as well as The Selah Awards’ Director’s Choice. Julie and her husband have four grown children, six grandchildren, and one crazy Golden Retriever puppy.