Clinginess

Two of the many people who could be looked at in relation to the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes are Jack Kerouac and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  They come from very different backgrounds; the cultures, families, and lifestyles of each of them were quite nearly opposed.  Yet they both, as has every other person on this planet, faced the question of what in their lives is meaningful.

Ecclesiastes is the story of a man's desperation to find something worthwhile, but everywhere he looks in his successful life he finds dust and wind.  He knows none of it will last.  It isn't until he puts his hope in God that he can have any kind of peace.  The author concludes: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is an example of a life that ended in direct line with the final statement in Ecclesiastes.  Growing up, Bonhoeffer lived a life that seems like it would set someone up to live to a good old age and have a respectable life.  He studied theology in school, then went through the seminary and on to become a pastor.  However, why did he make such a splash in history, dying a martyr's death as a respected theologian and minister?  At 24 he went from his home in Germany to the "wilderness" of New York, to further his studies.  It was here that he became involved with a church congregation in Harlem.  This may have not been months of time alone in a desert, but he noted how this experience gave him the ability to see things from the perspective of the oppressed and where his theology was "turned from phraseology to reality."  This reality is what would drastically change the course of his life when it came to standing against everything in his Hitler-run native Germany.  Ultimately, he came to possess "that moral greatness which holds life and honor subservient to truth."* He found his duty as man to follow God.

Kerouac, on the other hand, was raised in a Catholic home in America and created a reputation for himself as a mournful man wandering the globe; a vagabond.  His life was filled with every kind of experimentation, and much of it was spent struggling with alcohol.  As he matured, he found himself to be a 40-something-year-old man haggard by his unhealthy lifestyle.  To get away from the pressure of his fans and get some peace, he went to a friend's cabin at Big Sur.  The peace was good for him at first, but soon he found himself spiraling downward by his alcohol and depression.  He eventually spent a horrible night in a state of delirium.  However, when he woke up the next day he felt fine, even refreshed.  In that state, he finished his book recounting this time with the phrase "There's no need to say another word."  Soon after, still in his forties, he died in his home.

What does this mean for us?  One man found something to cling to that was even more to him than life, while another man was clung to by so many things that his life was snuffed out.  They both searched for meaning and truth, they chose different paths, and they both led relatively short lives.

Maybe all we can conclude is already found in several passages from Ecclesiastes.  "So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him.  All share a common destiny--the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not."(9.1-2)  Therefore, "whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might," (9.10) since after all, "a man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction... ...from the hand of God." (2.24)

*Great Controversy, p. 216