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Nothing Changes – There is Nothing New Under the Sun

The years go by, and humankind continues to make discoveries but, nothing changes, and there is nothing new under the sun. Everything has its time, and that time will come, and it will go – over and over again. But the human spirit never changes. There is no good except God the creator. Man is evil and always will be. God defines good; more than that, he creates good. And what he makes chooses to follow evil because every human being he created with free will. It is the way things are and the way they will be. The years go by, and humankind continues to make discoveries but, nothing changes, there is nothing new, and nothing ever will be. Everything has its time, and that time will come, and it will go – over and over again. But the human spirit never changes.

Ecclesiastes 1:9–10 (ESV): 9  What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10  Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.

Do You Believe There are New Things on Earth

Do you think that plagues are new? Do you believe that somehow we can change the course God has plotted? Nothing is new. Climate change is not recent; war has always been, as will homelessness and murder, and everything else under the stars. And sadness comes, and darkness and eventually the end. It is a cycle that starts with birth and ends with death.

There is a reason that Jesus spilled his blood to give us the only way to God. Not one of us has the innate good with which God created us. The first humans God created took that long ago in the Garden of Eden. I am wretched, and I stand before God as an undeserving evil excuse for a man. As each year goes by, it becomes apparent that I don’t deserve anything with which God has blessed me. With age, I become acutely aware of just how evil I am. And it is beyond comprehension why God would extend his grace to my wretched, worthless soul.

I knew many years ago that God made way for me to experience his love. I knew then that I needed a savior. I didn’t know the extent of my evil heart, but looking back, I see I am worthless. And now I face the world for what it is, a cruel, evil place that will eventually reject me as useless to the motives of the young. And it will deny me even more so that I profess my faith in Jesus Christ.

There Is a Time

So, if I accepted my evil nature and the grace that God has given me, why then am I so sad. Because I still must suffer, that is why. Unless God chooses to take me early, I will suffer more rejection, more pain, more loneliness, and more of all that is bad. I will also reap some good things and find temporary happiness, but as we see, there is a time for everything, and that time will come, and it will go. But there is nothing new, it has all happened before.

Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 (ESV): For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

Today, I feel hopeless. Tomorrow I may find some temporal happiness for as long as I live on this earth. But it doesn’t matter because everything I gain, all that I have or will have, is in vain. It will pass as time passes, and the next thing comes. God has said it, we have seen it, and it will be. So why even try?

We keep going because we don’t have a choice. We are here because God, our creator, willed us to be here. As quickly as he brought us here, he could take us away. As fast as he gave us all we had, he could make it disappear.

A Life Wasted?

So is my life a waste? Was it all for nothing? I wake with a wrenching in the pit of my stomach. What will today bring? Could this be the day of ruin when every hidden weakness and the sum of all my fears come to light? Death would be a welcome friend in these days of darkness. But death will not go because I am not deserving of peace.

When death finally overtakes me, what have I left behind? I ache that I did not provide better for my wife and daughters. My wife deserved so much more from a husband than me. My girls deserved a better father. My choices have left me with regrets that will not go away. My grandchildren are jewels, but even then, I failed.

When I am gone from this earth, I wonder how people will remember me when there is nothing but a rotting corpse left here. Here lies a man God created for a greater purpose, but he wasted every opportunity to live out his God-given objective. Instead, he lived for selfish desire, chasing a mirage. Just as a man dying of thirst chases the imagined pool of cool fresh water, his mind tells him it is there. But everything is for nothing because evil puts the imagined satisfaction of living for the flesh in my heart.

And now, there is nothing left. Everything is lost, and nothing has changed. The aching is still there, deep in the pit of my stomach. The longing to have lived a life worth something is the company I will keep by my side until my days are done. This is not new. It is something that people have felt over and over. You see, there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:11 (ESV): 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

What is Left if Nothing Changes, if Nothing Under the Sun Is New 

There is hope in God, and it is that hope that keeps me going. God must have loved even me, the undeserving miserable creature like me. I used to think I could measure myself against others, and there I would be worthy. But with age comes wisdom, and with understanding comes sight. And I see myself for what I am – a worthless creature created for great things but wasted everything looking for something that was not there.

My life is the perfect example of why Jesus came to this earth, lived among us as one of us, and then suffered a horrific death at the hands of those whom he came to save. I was not on this earth when Jesus was killed, but it was by my hand that he died. And now, if there is any chance for me, I accept what he did for me so that God can forgive me for wasting my life and instead, living for my selfish desire.

And so, a wasted life can still have peace. Remember when I am gone, as another of God’s creations, gave the only thing he had to offer, his heart to God. It will be in death that I will find true meaning. When that comes, I do not know, but come it will.

John 16:33 (ESV): 33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

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