Reflecting on the death of the mother of a church member, my thoughts quickly turned to the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. There was a man that was said to be the wisest man that ever lived. He was the son of the great king David and his famous stolen wife Bathsheba. His name was Solomon, and he is credited with having written three of the books found in the Bible - Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. It has been said that these three books represented the three major stages of Solomon's life: the Song of Solomon was a sensual love song written to the wife of his youth; Proverbs was written as the collection of wisdom representing the peak of Solomon's creativity in middle age; and Ecclesaiastes sounds like the pessimistic grumblings of an old man. If you take the time to read this book, you will quickly see what I mean. The theme seems to be, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity." Or to put it more in our language, "Everything in this life is meaningless." That was the very human perspective of a man looking back at the end of his life.

What struck me as I reviewed this book was the number of times a particular phrase is repeated. At least 8 times Solomon included this phrase as he tried to convey this human sense of meaningless.

The phrase I'm referring to is "Chasing the Wind". Listen to what Solomon says in chapter 2:16, 17 - "For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die! So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind."

Later in the same chapter he says, "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind." (2:24-26)

In another place, Solomon expresses it this way: "And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. The fool folds his hands and ruins himself. Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind." (4:4-6)

Chasing the wind - can you imagine anything more futile? If you manage to catch it, what will you have? Can you put your arms around it? Can you take it home and make something out of it? Is there any market for wind?

In the New Testament, Paul put it another way, he said ". . . so fight I, not as one that beateth the air." (1 Corinthians 9:26) What a silly picture, a boxer in the ring swinging his fists at nothing but air.

The simple truth is this, if you leave God out of your life, it will be like chasing the wind, or beating the air.

Don't you feel that way some times? Every day, get up pull on your clothes, wolf down a cup of coffee, grab a bagel and run, run all day, just to sink down into bed at the end of the day wondering what it's all about. This sense of meaninglessness comes out in our music: do you remember Tennessee Ernie Ford's song, "Another Day Older And Deeper In Debt"?

How can someone lie in a bed day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and not come to the place where he or she would do what others have been doing - ask for a lethal injection to end it all? There's only one possible answer - it is God in his or her life. On the other hand, your life may be meaningless even though you have the strength to go about your activities. It's time to ask the question, "What can bring meaning into my life?" The answer is simple and clear, put God in your life. I saw it on the bill board along the highway near Lansing. In stark white letters against a solid black background, it simply said, "Follow Me - God".

Solomon, this great man of wisdom ended his discourse with this exhortation, "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth . . . here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man." (12:1,13)

But there's one other place in the Bible where mention is made of the wind. It's when Jesus was talking with Nicodemus. He said, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)

Instead of chasing the wind, the Lord wants you to be filled with the wind. You've heard the expression many times, but that's what it means to be "born again." It's not about turning over a new leaf, making a new start. To be "born again" means that God has given you a new life. When God created man in the first place, in the Garden of Eden, what did He do? He breathed into the body he had formed from the dust of the ground. It was wind that gave man life. But then man sinned against God, and he lost that part of life that related with God. For man to live again, to be "born again" a new breath must be breathed into man. A new wind must blow into his soul. That needs to happen to you today. Here's the choice, either be involved in the futility of "chasing the wind", or else be filled with the wind. The wind is the Spirit of God. By accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you are giving opportunity for His Spirit to dwell in you, give you power over sin and power for service - and a lifetime filled with purpose and meaning.