Nothing New Under the Sun

Nothing New Under the Sun

If you listen to the news on the radio, watch it on the television or read it in a newspaper you can get very depressed. There is so much happening in the world at the present time: earthquakes, floods, cyclones, tornados, school shootings, serial killers, the war in Iraq rages on, and the death toll climbs higher and higher. To add to all that, we have our nation falling further and further away from its Christian roots, a nation of no morals, a nation of all "truth" being equal, a nation that supports the murder of millions of unborn children, and now we begin to see the governmental sanction of same sex marriage. Recently I had become so overwhelmed by it all that it seemed too much to bear. What kind of a world will my grandchildren be brought up in? Is there any hope?

Then I read Solomon's words in Ecclesiastes. He was the wisest man that ever lived...yet so much of this book is bleak and seemingly hopeless. Solomon writes in chapter 3 verse 15: "whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account." All that we are experiencing has happened before; there really is "nothing new under the sun." Natural disasters, wars, murders, governments falling away from God, sexual immorality, have always been with us...nothing has changed.

But my hope isn't in what president will be elected, what new law will be passed, in religion, or in the hundreds of organizations who rush to help in times of disaster; my hope is and has to be in Jesus alone. It has to be; He alone has the cure, the answer to all the ills of this world and it is salvation and eternal life through His shed blood.

I can't change what happens in the world but I can change me. It begins with my faith in Jesus, my stand for truth, my witness to every one I meet (not just my Christian friends)...this I pray will have an impact for change in my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren...if the Lord should tarry.

After all his searching and all his questions, Solomon concluded in Ecclesiasties 12:13-14: "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." It is all about God.

Psalm 18:2 "The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Mary Ann Kiernan serves at America's KESWICK in our Addiction Recovery Ministries