{"id":1992,"date":"2024-01-08T22:18:07","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T11:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/?p=1992"},"modified":"2024-01-08T22:18:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T11:18:07","slug":"death-idol-meaninglessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/death-idol-meaninglessness\/","title":{"rendered":"Death &amp; Idol = Meaninglessness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, there is something strange I notice. Among the reasons people celebrate, people celebrate their &#8216;achievements&#8217; of being in certain places \/ being with certain famous person (who has long dead, or even with their statues).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t understand the logic of it. Mozart &amp; Beethoven, yes they&#8217;re legend. But to take photos with statue of them and call that an achievement to begin a New Year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>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 &#8216;famous&#8217; 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&#8217;t it foolish to put these dying person as an idol, that today here and tomorrow might be gone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think, we put up with all these foolish behaviors because we didn&#8217;t consider death. And we&#8217;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&#8217;s nobody that could live forever?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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,&#8221;meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless&#8221;, is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there&#8217;s nothing more than this life, then everything are fleeting. Our joys, our laughters, our memories, our love, our <em>celebrations<\/em>, everything are just temporary, and hence meaningless. And I think that&#8217;s what drive many people into depressions. Because deep down in human&#8217;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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So much for rejecting God and everything leads nowhere without God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Happy New Year 2024, because He lives!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/death-idol-meaninglessness\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,6,9,99,104,107,61,67,72],"tags":[130,145,436,435,218,437,434,244,438,281,439,318,328,334],"class_list":["post-1992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-corinthians","category-ecclesiastes","category-enjoyment","category-faith","category-hope","category-life-quotes-by-subject","category-security","category-thankful","category-wisdom","tag-celebration","tag-death","tag-foolishness","tag-idol","tag-life","tag-madness","tag-meaning","tag-new-year","tag-observation","tag-resurrection","tag-thoughts","tag-victory","tag-wisdom","tag-year-end"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":403,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/i-want-go-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":1992,"position":0},"title":"i want go home","author":"clay","date":"May 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Last nite went home really late... my colleagues was talking if today my first time stayed up so late ... well, i've good reasons to do that ... (hmm, too long to be told here) but yah, so went home, catch idol announcement...then slept... morning woke up, with my body\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Tired&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Tired","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/emotion\/tired\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1740,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/perfect-security\/","url_meta":{"origin":1992,"position":1},"title":"Perfect Security","author":"clay","date":"June 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\"... from Jesus Christ\u00a0the faithful witness,\u00a0the firstborn of the dead, and\u00a0the ruler of kings on earth. To\u00a0him who loves us and\u00a0has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us\u00a0a kingdom,\u00a0priests to\u00a0his God and Father, to him be\u00a0glory and\u00a0dominion forever and ever. Amen.\"\u00a0~ Revelation 1:5-6 (ESV) I don't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assured&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assured","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/emotion\/assured\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":758,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/death-at-the-door\/","url_meta":{"origin":1992,"position":2},"title":"Death at the Door","author":"clay","date":"April 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, there has been many death news around me. Beginning with wife of founder my ex-company at the age of 84. Followed by a young guy in church, left behind a wife & 2 little children just last week. And most recent is our friend's father that passed away because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":490,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wisdom-of-god1\/","url_meta":{"origin":1992,"position":3},"title":"Wisdom of God (1)","author":"clay","date":"June 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning, a pastor came to our office to share. I came and listened she quoted a lot of theory and expert's say, which i can't remember. What i don't understand, why people like to complicate things... It's quite silly to think that these so called experts can say these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Wisdom&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Wisdom","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/virtues\/wisdom\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":867,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/seeing-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":1992,"position":4},"title":"Seeing Things","author":"clay","date":"October 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Lately my eyes have been playing tricks on me. Sometimes i feel that i'm moving down, or moving forward....while actually is the lift that moving up, or the bus that moving forward. It is not something new. It's being used in 3D \/ 4D cinematography, to make people feel as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Prayer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Prayer","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/expression\/prayer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1245,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/on-child-discipline\/","url_meta":{"origin":1992,"position":5},"title":"On child discipline","author":"clay","date":"September 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning as I meditated on this passage, I notice something very interesting. Here the pattern that I observe: An admonition to show restraint \/ withholding self when dining with a ruler (for it is deception; status or delicacies) To withhold ambition from accumulating wealth (for it will waste time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Convicted&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Convicted","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/emotion\/convicted\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1993,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions\/1993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}