Year 2024 just began. And I see there are so many celebrations. There are many good reasons to celebrate, especially celebrate each others whom you love.
However, there is something strange I notice. Among the reasons people celebrate, people celebrate their ‘achievements’ of being in certain places / being with certain famous person (who has long dead, or even with their statues).
I don’t understand the logic of it. Mozart & Beethoven, yes they’re legend. But to take photos with statue of them and call that an achievement to begin a New Year?
I do think people have very low standard for idols, such that dead statue could be called an idol. Even if a person is still alive, I do think one day these ‘famous’ people will eventually die. The same person we put up as an idol, they may no longer be around 50 years down the road. Isn’t it foolish to put these dying person as an idol, that today here and tomorrow might be gone?
I think, we put up with all these foolish behaviors because we didn’t consider death. And we’re truly fools to not consider death in the picture. We thought we could wish it away. A dead object is definitely not worth to be called an idol. And a death person is as good as a death object. Why we put up with all these? Why we are not thinking? Why we could be so blinded and not seeing death, where we know there’s nobody that could live forever?
In fact, as I look at year 2023, I see a lot of death of loved ones among my friends. It was a sad year for many, because the passing of loved ones. Death is a destroyer of dreams and ambitions, and happiness on this earth. Whatever fame and achievements one has, all is gone by death. And what the Teacher said in Ecclesiastes,”meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless”, is true.
If there’s nothing more than this life, then everything are fleeting. Our joys, our laughters, our memories, our love, our celebrations, everything are just temporary, and hence meaningless. And I think that’s what drive many people into depressions. Because deep down in human’s hearts, we long for permanency. We long for something that is lasting. But life simply escape our grasps, no matter how tight we want to hold them. The helplessness and hopelessness that brings many into despair.
So much for rejecting God and everything leads nowhere without God.
And those who accept God, He gave them the gift to enjoy life. For in Him, we live and have our beings. And death is not the end, but the beginning of an eternal life with Him. Therefore, when death is defeated at the cross, meaninglessness is also driven out. Despair is crushed, and Christ rose from the dead, the ultimate victory that brings hope against all circumtances. Praise the Lord for Jesus, our hope in life and death.
Happy New Year 2024, because He lives!!