Beware spiritual amnesia

In my last post I mentioned Ecclesiastes 12:1 briefly. Lets' dig into that one a little deeper...

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them"; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, ... (Ecclesiastes 12:1-2; ESV)

As we get older our senses are typically diminished. We often find we have decreased ability to see and hear. We might get 'a touch of diabetes' and lose some sensation in our legs. Thomas Hanna founded a school of therapy (Hanna Somatics) based on the idea that we progressively lose our ability to sense the position of our joints and the state of tension in our muscles and that this 'sensorimotor amnesia' leads to many other somatic dysfunctions.

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But it is not just our physical senses. We can become hardened with age and lose out sense of innocence, our sense of wonder. We can lose our ability to blush. We might sleep less and more lightly, losing some our ability to dream. In short, we can lose our sense of spirituality as we age.

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The author of Ecclesiastes is warning us about this phenomenon. Remember your Creator while you can still see and hear and feel good enough to see the magnificence of creation give witness to its' Creator (as in Rom 1:19-20, Psa 19:1). If we do not exercise our sense of spiritual wonder when we are young then we may be left unable to exercise it later (after the sun and the moon and the stars are darkened...).

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That gives a neat perspective to the rest of the Ecclesiastes 12 passage:

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them"; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut--when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low-- they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets-- before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7)

Double shamed

Ok, I've been shamed into updating this blog by a friend that graduated high school with me and went to college with me. She says I'm a slacker and all, so I picked up the Peloponnesian War because (1. we're about to get back into the ancients in homeschool, 2. this was an interesting read the last time I read it, and 3. it's on the top of my to-read list on my blog) and right off the bat learnt something that made me feel even dumber and more-shameder...

Before the Trojan war there is no indication of any common action in Hellas, nor indeed of the universal prevalence of the name; on the contrary,before the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion, no such appellation existed, but the country went by the names of the different tribes, in particular of the Pelasgian. It was not till Hellen and his sons grew strong in Phthiotis, and were invited as allies into the other cities, that one by one they gradually acquired from the connection the name of Hellenes; though a long time elapsed before that name could fasten itself upon all. The best proof of this is furnished by Homer. Born long after the Trojan War, he nowhere calls all of them by that name.

Now, I knew that early Greece was tribal and disunified, only coming together under the name of Hellen later - but somehow I never put it together that Hellen was not the same person as Helen of Troy. Duh! From Wikipedia:

Hellen (Ancient Greek: Ἕλλην, Héllēn), Greek Katharevousa:([Héllēn] (help·info)) was the mythological patriarch of the Hellenes, the son of Deucalion (or sometimes Zeus) and Pyrrha, brother of Amphictyon and father of Aeolus, Xuthus, and Dorus. The word comes from the prefix έλ- (el- "sun, bright, shiny", (elios, "sun")) + λάς (las "rock, stone"). Ελλάς: "The land of the sun and the rock". His name is also another name for Greek, meaning a person of Greek descent or pertaining to Greek culture, and the source of the adjective "Hellenic". Each of his sons founded a primary tribe of Greece - Aeolus the Aeolians, Dorus the Dorians and Xuthus the Achaeans (from Xuthus's son Achaeus) and the Ionians (from Xuthus's probably illegitimate son Ionas ) together with his sister's Pandora's and Thyia's sons with Zeus and according to Hesiod's (probably) "Eoiae" (Greek : Ηοίαι (ancient Greek Ἠοῖαι from Ἠ' οἷαι = "or such women as") or "Catalogue of Women"[1], Graecus the Graecians, Makednos the Makedones and Magnes the Magnetes . They conquered the Greek area of Phthia and subsequently spread their rule to other Greek cities. The people of those areas came to be called Hellenes, after the name of their ancestor.

Want to read it for free? Check out the Gutenberg e-text. Otherwise, if you want to actually buy a paper copy of this super-cool history, please buy it at my Amazon store:

Seldom is heard an encouraging word...

This week I finish my study of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 12 contains one of the most famous of memory verses. One prescribed to me by my mom upon my graduation from high school:

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them"; Ecc 12:1

Most resources that you will find on Ecclesiastes will warn you that the book is depressing and dark. I disagree. Ecclesiastes is a book of wisdom with a sober, but important message, that being to keep in mind that everything under the sun (i.e. in this life), all human works, are ultimately futile (even if they have some human worth) and if you worship them then you will eventually find them as futile and fleeting as chasing the wind.

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But on the other hand, if you remember your Creator and guard your steps when you approach the Temple, you will find that God has blessed you with contentment in this life and youwill find everlasting reward because what God does endures forever. That is the encouraging word within Ecclesiastes.
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I think for my next study I will be doing Galatians, probably again at a rate of about one chapter per week. Please Lord, send your Holy Spirit to rest on me and tutor me and interpret this Holy, inerrant, infallible word to me so that I may apply it to my life.