"This little sliver"
YOUTH
When I first got my hands on this book I was excited to see some well-known
authors: Don Carson, Tim Keller - I love Tim Keller! But my favourite writing
in the book is here. ‘Youth’ by Matt Chandler is my favourite chapter.
There’s a realness here that I can relate to. It’s edgy. Maybe it’s because at 33, I’m still
pretty young. But it’s much more than that. I felt an instant connection with
the author describing all the young peoples’ funerals he had officiated at. The
memory of fare welling my 19 year-old brother will always be fresh. It will
always have a rawness. I know. I’ve lived it. Death is awful. But a life cut
short is worse still.
Matt (I’m going to call him Matt) reflects on the year he preached
through the book of Ecclesiastes, and hones in on Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:8. It is
an extraordinary piece of writing. In one poetic sweep it sums up the essence
of life, the brevity of it, the swiftness with which we can move from youth, our
newness, in all the health and energy and enjoyment of that time to the final
phase, not the third age (the long awaited retirement Western society gears us
up to look forward to), but the fourth age, a phase where about the years we
will say “I have no pleasure in them”. (Ecc 12:1) Until “the dust returns to the earth as it
was, and the Spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Ecc 12:7)
The imagery is beautiful and shocking: the silver cord snaps, the golden
bowl breaks, the pitcher shatters at the fountain. These solid, reliable
things, these things we thought we could count on, they breakdown too. But
don’t miss the point. Matt wants us to get underneath what is being said here.
It is not a hopeless message.
The point, which Matt zeroes in on, and the author of Ecclesiastes builds
and builds to, is that we will be judged. It says it right there in the
passage: Enjoy your youth. “But know that for all these things, God will bring
you into judgement.” (Ecc 11:9) There’s no escaping that. Our job is to
remember our creator. But Matt works hard to help us get underneath what that
means. In revealing so much about his own personal struggles: with cancer, and
encounters with those in his congregation who have suffered and lost people
they loved, to untimely deaths. He does a fine job of peeling back the layers,
and of encouraging us to get underneath this passage. Underneath our sufferings
and struggles, underneath our rejoicing too. And, “to give credit where credit
is due”. (p.109)
As Matt says, “I am under no illusion that any of us is guaranteed to
see thirty years-much less sixty, or seventy, or eighty. This time we have,
this little sliver, really is a gift from God.” (p.104.)
I think that all the time. Every time my husband makes a funny joke I
know my brother would appreciate and build on and make ten times funnier. Every
time I see a smile in one of my kids that looks a bit like him. Or when I see
myself in the mirror with a worried look, a family look that we as siblings all
share. His life was cut short, right at the beginning of his young adulthood,
at the special and enjoyable time talked about right here in this passage. Why
did God do this? I have no idea. I know that he works all things for the good
of those who love him. (Romans 8:28) And I know, with certainty, that my
brother is with Jesus now and knows a closeness to Him far better than anything
I have experienced so far. I know this because Jesus promises the thief on the
cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) My little brother
is in paradise. He is where I am headed. I need to remember where he is and
where I am going and to joyfully remember my creator in the days of my youth.
If you feel like the Bible
doesn’t have anything new to say to you in your pain and suffering please pick
up this book and read this chapter! Read page 106 where Matt talks about how he
didn’t respond perfectly to the news he had cancer. How stricken he felt
walking in to the homes of bereaved parishioners. He talks with so much
realness and pain about how tough it was. But he also shares how because of
living through those experiences, reading Ecclesiastes is deeper and richer for
him now, he feels it. Matt wants us
to rejoice fully in all that God has done for us in Christ, to avoid shallow
rejoicing, in things that can be taken from us. And to get underneath where
these good things come from in the first place! His hope at the end of the
chapter is that we would be a person unshaken, no matter when sickness or death
or disaster come knocking. That in Christ we would stand firm and rejoice. This chapter is a good encouragement to feel
our feelings and then to be quick to respond rightly to God.
The contributor for this month
has blogged a tiny bit about the experience of losing her brother at 19. If you
would like to read more click here.