‘Tranquility’
[Ecclesiastes 4:4-6]
What is in your mind these days? Do you have peace in your heart? Have you ever read “The Serenity Prayer”? This is what it says: “God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference. Amen (Internet). Like this prayer, have you ever asked God for the serenity of accepting things that you cannot change? I don’t think I ever prayed to God like this. I prayed to God for a peace that the world could not give in my heart, but I never seem to have found the serenity to accept things I can not change. Rather, I think I am trying to change myself instead of accept things I cannot change. In other words, there were a lot of times when I tried to change things before God because I could not accept things that I could not change. So, there were many times when I was not in peace of mind. Instead, I was in a state of conflict, anxiety, and self-defense. But God had mercy on me. He guided me with the Word of God and enabled me to humbly accept the things that I cannot change that were reflected in the Word. Moreover, he enabled me to entrust everything to God in prayer and to wait for God to touch my heart. Therefore, God had given me peace in my heart and still gives it to me.
Pope John Paul II shares the "Ten Commandments of Tranquility" (Internet). Pope John Paul II seems to have tried to keep his own Ten Commandments of Tranquility in order to keep calm in his own mind:
1. Even today, I will try to live only one day without trying to solve my life problems at once.
2. Even today, I will act very carefully. I will not criticize anyone and will not try to correct others. I will only criticize and correct myself.
3. Even today, I will be happy in my conviction that I was created for happiness, not for others, but for the world.
4. Even today, I will adapt to various situations and circumstances without adapting to my wishes.
5. Even today, I will devote to reading for ten minutes of the time given to me. Just as food is needed in the physical life, good reading is needed in the life of the soul.
6. Even today, I will behave well. And I will not tell it to anyone.
7. Even today, I will do something that has nothing to do with my desires. If I feel that there is something unfortunate in my heart, I will take care not to let anyone notice it.
8. Even today, I will surely believe that even if it is the opposite of my will, God's providence cares for me as if there is no one but me in this world.
9. Even today, I will not fear anything. I will not be afraid to be particularly pleased with what is beautiful, or to enjoy it.
10. Even today, I will write an accurate schedule. Even if the plan can not be executed correctly, it will write it. And I will be careful of two evils, 'hasty hastening' and 'undecided and indecisive action'.
In Ecclesiastes 4: 4-6, the Teacher King Solomon gives us three lessons on how we should do to keep tranquility in our mind.
First, we must get rid of envy in order to keep the tranquility of our hearts.
Look at Ecclesiastes 4:4 – “And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” When we mediated on Ecclesiastes 4:1-3, we thought about how King Solomon saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun. And he saw the tears of the oppressed. In Ecclesiastes 4: 4, he saw people envying each other and doing all sorts of hard work and tricky things. In other words, King Solomon saw in this world that people are jealous and compete with each other and do all the hard work. “This too is chasing is meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (v.4).
What is envy? Envy is “desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable attribute belonging to (someone else)” (Internet). The Latin “indivia” means ‘to look up with evil eye’ and to make one’s heart the ‘evil eye’. In other words, envy entails desire to seize what other possessed that is better that what one has with a feeling of sadness and displeasure over the possession of others (Internet). A good biblical example is King Saul. When we look at 1 Samuel 18:9, the Bible says that King Saul kept a jealousy eye on David. From that time on when the women came out from all the towns of Israel (v. 6) and sang as they danced “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands” (v. 7), King Saul kept a jealousy eye on David. So King Saul tried to kill David. As I read the Book of Genesis in these days, I see some people in the Bible envied others. For example, in Genesis 30:1, I see that Rachel became jealous of her sister Leah and said to her husband Jacob “Give me children, or I’ll die!” And in Genesis 37:11, I see Joseph’s old brothers who were jealous of Joseph because they saw that their father loved Joseph more than any of them (v. 4). So they tried to kill their own young brother Joseph. How scary is this? The Psalmist Asaph also envied the arrogant when he saw the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous (Ps. 73). We can also envy the wicked who are prosperous but the righteous who are suffering. It is envy when our heart is sad and displease with what we don’t have and when we desire to possess what the wicked have. This is what King Solomon said in Proverbs 14:30 – “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.” Peace of mind, tranquility of the heart gives life to our bodies, but envy rots our bones. So a pastor said: ‘Good for bones is good words, joy of heart is peace of mind. Envy, anxiety and anger are bad for bones. Envy decays the bones, the anxiety dries the bones, and the anger kills the bones’ (Internet).
One of the things I still do not forget is that when I attended a seminary presidential ceremony, an elderly pastor said he made good competition among his church assistant pastors. When I heard him saying it, I was little bit surprised. And I asked myself ‘How could a senior pastor make his assistant pastors to compete each other. Is it right to say that’s good competition?’ People are working with competitiveness in doing things in and out of the church. Even at home, parents are making their children to do “good competition” as they raise them. Do you think “good competition” is right? Based on Ecclesiastes 4:4, I think having competition among each other is not right. The reason is because competition takes away tranquility in heart. If we do everything with a competitive consciousness, then there is more chance that our hearts will be filled with envy, anxiety and anger rather than peace. That’s why King Solomon says that all labor and all achievement spring from man’s envy in the sense of competing with neighbors is in vain (4: 4). Therefore, we must get rid of all competitive consciousness and envy that take away tranquility from our hearts. We should no longer do the vain effort of of greed with the consciousness of competing with our neighbors. I hope and pray that we get rid of envy so that we may keep the tranquility of our hearts.
Second, we must work diligently in order to keep the tranquility of our hearts.
Look at Ecclesiastes 4:5 – “The fool folds his hands and ruins himself.” King Solomon said that the fool folds his hands and it means the fool does not work. This is what the Bible Proverbs 21:25 says: “The sluggard's craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work.” Those sluggards who refuse to work with their hands are the fools (Eccle. 4:5). When I think about this, 1 Thessalonians 3:10 came into my mind: “… If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” At the time of Paul there were brothers in the Thessalonian community who did not want to work. The problem was not only that they did not work at all, but rather they were busybodies (v. 11). Why didn’t they work and were busybodies? In other words, why did they refuse to work with their hands? It was because they had wrong eschatology. In other words, the people who did not work in the Thessalonian church had a crooked view of Jesus’ second coming. And that’s what some Jehovah’s Witnesses people did after they heard the prophecy of Charles Taze Russell, the founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses that Jesus’ Second Coming would be in 1874 so they stopped everything and prepared for His Second Coming. Beside such erroneous eschatology, what are some other reasons why Christians refuse to work with their hands and are lazy?
Do you know what the characteristic of the lazy person is? One of its characteristics is that the lazy person is good at making excuses. Look at Proverbs 26:13 – “The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!” Roads and streets are the places where people work. If there is a lion there, you will not be able to go there. This is an excuse to scare people when they are trying to do something and to excuse themselves when they have no confidence (Internet). Another characteristic of lazy people is that they like sleep. Look at Proverbs 26:14 – “As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.” This means that the lazy one hangs around the bed. In other words, the lazy person is rolling over the bed and and is enjoying sleeping. In addition to these Bible passages, Proverbs speaks of laziness several times: “How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest- and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man” (6:9-11), “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth” (10:4), “The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied” (13:4), “Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry” (19:15).
In today’s passage Ecclesiastes 4:5, King Solomon said, “The fool folds his hands and ruins himself.” The meaning is that fools are lazy and can not earn any income, but only to perpetuate destruction (Park Yun-sun). So he said “If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks” (10:18). This means that the prodigal life of the lazy rulers is destroying the nation. But diligent hands bring wealth (Prov. 10:4). In other words, the diligent man prizes his possessions (12:27). The Bible says that diligent hands bring wealth (10:4), will rule (12:24), and their desires will be fully satisfied (13:4) and will make their hope sure (Heb. 6:11). There is tranquility in the heart of the diligent (Internet). But in the mind of the lazy, there is nothing but anxiety, worry, excuses, grudges, complaints.
Lastly, we must be satisfied with God alone in order to keep the tranquility of our hearts.
Look at Ecclesiastes 4:6 – “Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” This word means that it is better to have tranquility in our heart with full of one hand than laboring in vain with full of both hands. In other words, the important thing is not whether we have a lot of possession or not but to have tranquility of heart or not. The problem is that when we try to pursue the abundance of material or possessions, we often try to be greedy and envious while competing with our neighbors. As a result, we can not help but lose the tranquility of our hearts. The greater danger is not only the loss of the tranquility of our hearts, but also we will be satisfied with the wealth of possessions rather than God. And as we continue to enjoy that satisfaction, we become more and more greedy. And when we become greedier, we become more filled with stress, anxiety, and worry than the tranquility of heart. When we reach such state of mind, our hearts cannot bear fruit because the Word of God is blocked (Mt. 13:22). That’s why the Psalmist said as follow: “Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked” (Ps. 37:16). Also, this is what King Solomon said in Proverbs 16:8 – “Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice.” What does it mean? It means that having a lot of income or small income is not important but the righteous, the wicked and the righteousness and unrighteousness is. This doesn’t mean that the righteous must always have little possession. The Bible says that Abraham and Job the righteous men, had a lot of possession. Of course, it is not to say that the wicked are always wealthy. There are many wicked people in the world who have little possessions. What is important is that the mind of the righteous is satisfied with the Lord alone, while the heart of the wicked is satisfied with the abundance of possessions. Thus, in the wicked heart, there is and cannot be any tranquility that is from God.
We must learn to be satisfied with the Lord alone in order to keep the tranquility in our hearts. Look at Philippians 4:11-13: “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Like Apostle Paul, we also need to learn how to live in want or in plenty. And we must learn the secret of being content in any situation, whether in plenty or in want. The secret is to be content with only one Lord who gives us strength. In doing so, we will be able to enjoy the true peace of the Lord, the King of Peace.
There is a memory of heart that still can not be forgotten. When I visited Brother Mark at the hospice a few years ago, I sang the gospel song "My peace I give unto you" in tears. The song goes like this: “My Peace I Give Unto You; It´s A Peace That The World Cannot Give; Its A Peace That The World Cannot Understand, Peace to Know, Peace To Live, My Peace I Give Unto You.” I still remember singing this song in my dream when I was in high school. Though we live in this world without peace, Jesus who is the King of Peace dwells in our hearts, and we can give praise to God, “My peace I give unto You.” I hope and pray that all of you may enjoy the true tranquility of the Lord that the world cannot give.