Time and Chance

As I age, I continue to be amazed with the speed of change in this world, particularly technological change. Just assessing what is on my desk this morning has started me to think about the effects of time. I have decided to list the items that I would not have been able to identify on sight without a lot of investigation when I was twenty-two years old. I was not a student then, but a married man and a practicing educator. Here is the stunning list.

laptop computer
usb thumb drive
Ipod Touch
highlighter
calculator
remote telephone receiver
inkjet printer
digital clock
blank cd’s
desk top computer with monitor
3.5 inch floppy disks
power bar
television remote control
VHS videotape
Post it Notes
compact fluorescent light bulb
keyless car entry remote control

I am shocked that I can find 17 items on my desk alone without getting up to walk around the house. I wonder what the total would be then. In forty years the changes are quite simply astounding. I would suggest that there has never been a forty years in all of human history to rival the speed of change. The words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 9:11 come to me this morning as I reflect on this.

11 ¶ I returned and saw under the sun that––The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all.

The words “time and chance” really are excellent descriptors of what has occurred in the last forty years to bring about so many unprecedented changes. Solomon who was granted great wisdom by God Himself speaks in the Book of Ecclesiastes at considerable length of the conditions that he saw “under the sun”. By this phrase he is describing worldly things not spiritual things. He is describing the way the world works without tapping into the power of God. Throughout the 12 chapters he constantly reminds us that whatever happens in this world under the sun is nothing but vanity. Life without God is futile, vain, false, and short. We might be tempted in this modern world to make some or all of my list of seventeen items our idols. Haven’t we become so self-reliant? Solomon offers us a warning that in the world the fastest doesn’t always win the race, the most powerful does not always prevail, the smartest aren’t always the best fed and don’t always get rich, nor are they always promoted to lofty positions. Time and chance stand in their way. You win some and you lose some. The most telling of Solomon’s wisdom comes at the very end of the book in Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14.

13 ¶ Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.
14 For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.

There is only one answer that makes any sense. We are to revere and love our Creator. We are to know who He is and to worship Him. The only way to cope with “time and chance” and to find true happiness is to find our God. We know with the benefit of being able to read the New Testament that this is best done through the acceptance of the Son of God. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we are freed from the harsh judgement outlined in verse 14. Rise above this world of vanity and deal with “time and chance” through the power of God and His Son!

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)