Higher Wisdom

The focus in March was on bits of wisdom and advice from several different people or sources. This month I am going to go to a “higher” source of wisdom. Most people will know that the Bible, year after year and decade after decade, is the most read book of all in the world, and the book with the highest sales. To Christians, of course, it represents God’s own words of inspiration and wisdom to people of all faiths, or no faith at all. My first experience with the Bible was looking through the pictures in a family Bible that my parents had on a living room table. None of us read it, but the pictures were quite wonderful and inspirational in a sense. 

I also clearly remember the song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” Written by Pete Seeger in 1959. He was not a Christian as I recall, but he used words from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible in the song. The group, The Byrds, made the song famous. The words used come from Chapter 3 of this book, which describes how there are times for so many different things in our lives, both good and bad. My first real experience reading a Bible came in my second term of my first year of university, at the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon). My History 102 professor spent several weeks discussing Martin Luther, his life, beliefs, radical for the time change in beliefs, ultimately resulting in the Protestant Reformation. I was so moved that I began reading the Gideon Bible of one of my roommates every night from 11:30 pm to 1:00, for most of two months, to find out what had
influenced Martin Luther, causing the change in his life. Ultimately, I did find this out, and I recall this coming to me as I read the book of Romans through for the third time.

Today I still read parts of the Bible regularly. One book I focus on is Ecclesiastes which was written by Solomon, who is often referred to as the wisest man who ever lived. I read this book through at least once, but often twice a year. I continue to garner new insights, inspirations, and sobering reflective thoughts. Just before I get into some of these, let me challenge each one of you to read through this book

– Ecclesiastes. It is only 12 short chapters long, and the read, depending on time taken to reflect, might be 15-30 minutes total time.

Here are some of the insights I gave gained from Solomon. These are not written down here in anything near the poetic style used by Solomon.
 The pursuit of life ”solely” under the sun, which means without God, is vanity, it is futile and it is meaningless.

 Death is the great equalizer, it levels the playing field for all humanity, since we will all experience it.
 Family, food, work/employment can be sources of enjoyment with a modicum of fulfillment and these are all gifts from God. Without looking this up to verify, it seems to me that Solomon refers to working and toiling as holding satisfaction or enjoyment in the manner of a gift from God, at least eight times in this book.
 Finding meaning in life is impossible apart from God. While we all desire meaning in life, we pursue meaning through finding pleasure, doing work, undertaking intellectual exercises/activities and/or other accomplishments and achievements. These apart from recognition and acceptance of God’s work in our lives, are destined to be unsatisfactory and empty.
 Humans have been set aside and set higher, than all other creatures on earth. While many people today think in terms of us being the current end product of evolution, Solomon correctly focuses on what does set us apart in Chapter 3, verse 11, when he says “He (God) has also set eternity in the human heart”. What Solomon means by this is that every human has a God given awareness that there is more to our lives and our existence than the visible world around us and within the span of years given to each of us.
Just a thought: Pete Seeger, in his song, “Turn! Turn! Turn!, tries to capture some of the tension between human time and the eternal. He does this through the use of the lyrics/words in Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, in conjunction with the poetic use of turn, turn, turn to emphasize the flight of time within a larger context of an unchanging world order – a time for every purpose under heaven. While there is a plan, we as humans are not able to fathom the enormity or full significance of the plan.
 Ok, this will be my last one, but, to be clear, every time I read this book I have new insights. As I age, Chapter 12 has become more and more applicable. Read that chapter now. It begins with great advice for the younger set, and it then moves into the “days of trouble”, those of us who are aging now find ourselves in. Out pleasures lessen, our eye-sight dims, our legs tremble and our posture fails, our teeth and our hearing falter, but our fears increase. And then, the silver cord is severed and the golden bowl is broken – death.

Now all of this has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. I came across a journal I had set aside two-three years ago and found some personal musings in the back of this. I have decided to include these in my blog.
*I have been in thousands of situations with many thousands of people and I have never seen a situation where being rude was ever warranted.
*My vision statement moving into career transition is “I decide each day, it does not decide me.”
*A friend is someone you can tell anything to.
*A friend is someone you can ask anything of.
*Be intentional and very critical about who you have in your life. Who are your top five friends? It is likely best to hang out with people who have a common ideology with you. Why would you associate regularly and deeply with someone who has an adverse ideology? For example, what do you consume – food, books, other readings, what you watch, entertainment. You need to intentionally and purposefully take control. (take captive)
*Joyce Meyers says that we are not to depend on others for our happiness, this on you. This I accept but I don’t accept that my goal in life is to be happy; certainly life and living and all that these entail must be bigger than this.
*Today you have to be strong to be good or do worthwhile things. Mediocre people are not capable of this.
*I used to feel embarrassed for showing emotion or tears. More and more now I am thankful for my tears.
*Lying is never right but telling half truths is more evil since these have the greater ability to deceive.
*This too shall pass.
*The more open you are about yourself, the happier you are.
*There are two kinds of pain, the pain that hurts, and the pain that alters.”

Author Unknown.

*If you get politics wrong, everything else falls apart. As dirty as it gets, politics is critical and we must go there.
*The Charter of Rights and Freedoms (like the U.S. Constitution), will not work in a religious (Christian) vacuum.
Tearing down of statues, renaming streets and buildings – These are examples of people reducing Canada, and people, to the ugliest moments and overlooking all of the wonderful things about Canada and people like John A., including their excellent accomplishments.

*Ecclesiastes has always been my favourite book of the Bible; Proverbs may be second. Whose thoughts or prayers more accurately flow from these books:
1). Lord bless me by letting me enjoy life, family, friends, and other Fruits of my labour.
2) Lord, don’t give me too much so that I am self sufficient and stop relying on You and/or forget You, but also don’t give me too little so that I have to resort to doing things which are dishonest or dishonourable to get along.

*My Mission Statement: (August 2022)
To be my wife’s best friend; to be an example and mentor to my children and grandchildren; to help young men become people of Godly character and leaders in the world they live in; and to be salt and light to all I come in contact with.

By Wayne Bernakevitch
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and are not necessarily those of RCAAN.