Life is Vapour, Therefore Enjoy Life (Ecclesiastes 2:1-3:15)

Everyone has one or more of those religious wet-blanket blips in their lives: the sort who frown upon laughter and carousing, who ask about the eternal value of massaging death-row bovines, and are ready to drive a stake through the still-beating heart of the performing ego of the moment.

But surely the universal enjoyment of food and drink and work, and music and dancing, and the arts and sciences, and sports and games demonstrates that these things are an integral part of the human experience.

Even the least self-aware/situationally-conscious of humans can, without any prompting:

while away the hours on silly iphone games, erm, honing tower defence and practical physics skills:


Plants vs Zombies, Angry Birds

appreciate an evening of comparing the marbling, texture, taste, mouth-feel of the meat of dead cows and discussing various methods of cooking such flesh:


rock Liao Zhai Rocks! and be very impressed by the obvious professionalism of the actors and set designers from The Theatre Practice:


sing badly and emo-ly at a karaoke session, exacerbated no doubt by Lady Gaga and lyrically-incompatible KTV videos of Caucasian women doing strange things:


soak in the “high” at a Chinese rock concert despite the one-hour wait to get into the Singapore National Stadium (which passed quickly thanks to possibly heretical allusions and analogies about the line to get into heaven on the Last Day – "Oh actually, this is the line for hell" and “Yes, well, we did say eternity didn’t we?” and the dangers of being distracted from one’s goal by an opportunistic ice-cream man),

The same line, doubled over
the ability to understand only a small percentage of what was being said, the vocals being a bit off, and not getting a money’s-worth ENcore (“Well, you can’t get your money’s worth if you didn’t actually pay for the tickets.”).

The song list for the D.N.A. Mayday World Tour 2010 变形DNA五月天世界巡回演唱会 (MSN). No iphone videos to spare the general public from the running commentary on postmodern interpretations of the lyrics in Christian terms and the concert-as-"worship service", and the application of the themes of Ecclesiastes to almost everything that was being sung/said, that must have sorely tried the patience of our neighbours at the concert (and at dinner before)!


Opening - youtube


Motorcycle stuntmen - youtube


Video sequence, 春天的吶喊 - music, lyrics

爆肝 - music, lyrics


賭神 - music


夜訪吸血鬼 - music, lyrics


Hosee - music, video

你不是真正的快樂 - music


生存以上 生活以下 - music, lyrics


瘋狂世界 - music
候鳥 - music
一顆蘋果 - music
突然好想你 - music, lyrics ("a sinner singing to sin")
我心中尚未崩壞的地方 - music
人生海海 - music
D.N.A. - music



雌雄同體 - music


離開地球表面 - music


笑忘歌 - music (hand-holding - the "fellowship" moment)
相信 - music
孫悟空 - music, vid


約翰藍儂 - music
小時候 - music
最重要的小事 - music, vid, lyrics


天使 - music
Ashin speaks - vid (inspirational thoughts accompanied by relevant background music)
後青春期的詩 - music
生命有一種絕對 - music, vid
軋車 - music


戀愛ing - music ("Eller-Oh-Vee-Eee!")


知足07’ 最知足版 - music
如煙 - music, vid, lyrics


溫柔(還你自由版) - music ("What God says to sinners!"), vid, vid


Fireworks - vid, vid.


We were urged repeatedly to treasure this historical last concert in the National Stadium.

If we can find some joy in these things, perhaps a higher quantity and quality of the same would be proportionally more happifying? Today at lunch, amidst the suggestions for tax-structuring with private trusts, charitable donations and the like, a friend was moaning about not having the lifestyle of her peers with their jetset weekends away fuelled by top dollar wines and food. When asked why she thought she’d be happier with more expensive pee and a higher risk of deep vein thrombosis, she said well, there was always the hope that she would be.

Qoholet had ample opportunity and ability to test this theory:

I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the children of man.

So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. (Ecclesiastes 2:4-10)

He had everything anyone could possibly want - maximum possible pleasure for all the senses. This was not some lazy indulgence but good and proper reward for his immense success from his hard work.

But his wisdom and knowledge which were responsible for this success also vexed him and increased his sorrow, for they showed him what a vanity and a striving after the wind both laughter and pleasure and toil were (Ecclesiastes 1:18, 2:17):

• For all the Teacher/Preacher’s work and success, there was nothing new to show – the supposedly great projects he had undertaken were just repetitions of what had already been done (Ecclesiastes 2:12); his achievements added nothing to humanity.
• Even though a wise man manages to navigate life successfully and efficiently whereas the fool trips over himself and stumbles through it, both are equals in death in the end (Ecclesiastes 2:14) and the wise man’s knowledge makes no difference.
• Oh, some might protest, even though the wise man dies in the end, perhaps he will live on in people’s hearts. No, says Q, of both the wise and of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance – in all the days to come all will have been long forgotten (Ecclesiastes 2:16).
• And even the wise man’s achievements hardly outlast him. The person who toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill, whose mind is working even when he is meant to be resting, doesn’t have enough time to enjoy all the fruit of his labour. Instead, someone else who didn’t bother to work for it will benefit, and if that person is a fool like many a rich man’s son, the assets are quickly dissipated (Ecclesiastes 2:18-23). Even in our lifetime, the most of the marvellous Wonders of the Ancient World are but the stuff of myth (if one can even name them at all), having been allegedly destroyed by earthquakes.

Tasty Peranakan food, Rendezvous Hotel

The believer is hardly surprised by this stark revelation, because God has given knowledge about this world to those who please him:

• The Christian knows that God made this world good and filled it with good things (Genesis 1-2).
• The Christian also knows that because of man’s distrust of the goodness of God and insistence on doing things their own foolish way, this world has been corrupted and nothing is as it was meant to be (Genesis 3): toil is frustrated so that for all our hard work in tilling, we get thorns some of the time; even the most intimate human relationships are painful and prickly.
• But because Christians have turned from living apart from God back to living properly under his rule and in right relationship with him, they understand that God is sovereign over all things and has purposed all things to be done according to his timing. So
  

  For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
  a time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose;a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew;a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate;a time for war, and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

Therefore, what does a worker gain from his toil or the wise man from his knowledge? If he knows God, then there is no desperate searching and striving in the futile hope of finding something to do that is more significant, more valuable; something that will serve as marker so that history will know that we have passed this way and we do not return to dust nameless with nothing to show for our brief existence. For he knows that:

• this world and this life is indeed just vapour in the wind and nothing he can do will change that.
• not everything about life can be understood.

By contrast,

• whatever God does endures forever and nothing can better his work nor can anyone mess it up.
• God alone knows what he has done from beginning to the end.

Kith Cafe, Toast Box, Sushi Tei, Sapporo Ramen Miharu, Dessert Bowl, IKEA. Nothing new under the sun.

As the popularity of Mayday’s emo rock ballads might demonstrate, frustration and futility is part of the universal human experience, as is partying and pleasure. Everyone, whether Christian or not, observes this in his life. For in his mercy, God has allowed some sliver of beauty and the enjoyment thereof to remain for all, and yet has put eternity in the heart of man so that we might have an inkling that the here and now is not all there is; we frustrated in our attempts to enjoy life - food and drink and work seem sweet and pleasant for a while but leave a bitter aftertaste in our mouths because no matter how much we extol their virtues, the wisest amongst us sees not only that they are in the end utterly fleeting, meaningless and pointless and yet cannot fathom what else there might be. And in fact, wisdom and foolishness are both moot for both the wise and the fool die in the end, rage raging against the dying of the light. And so frustrated, we might perhaps seek the One who not only understands the world, but shows us that there is no purpose in our lives apart from a relationship with Him.

The person who fears God as God and so knows Him and acknowledges their own vapour-ous existence will be able to rest from his fruitless yearning for importance, significance and worth and enjoy eating and drinking and take pleasure in his toil in the limited time he has and do good without paralysing poignancy, because he understands that a good God has given this business to the children of man to be busy with (Ecclesiastes 3:10, cf 1:13). This sort of fleeting satisfaction is a very good gift in this corrupt fallen world and God gives the creature who pleases him the ability to enjoy it (Ecclesiastes 3:11-14).


Ecclesiastes
Easter Everyday
Quest for Immortality: EPIC FAIL (Ecclesiastes 1:1-15)
Life is Vapour, Therefore Enjoy Life (Ecclesiastes 2:1-3:15)
Life is Far Worse than an iPhone Game, Therefore Harvest the Day! (Ecclesiastes 3:16-5:7)
Rawa Island and Godly Contentment (Ecclesiastes 5:8 - 6:9)
Fallen Frangipani, Really Wise Living (Ecclesiastes 6:10-7:29)

Mosaic Music Festival. Restaurant Week. Good times. Suffering and Death.

Perhaps one day, old and decrepit, immobile and blind and deaf, imprisoned within our own minds, we might remember these as halcyon days when we could come and go as we pleased, to bop along at concerts and cheer and whoop at the good bits, to enjoy good food and the company of friends:



Tickets to Au Revoir Simone at Mosaic Music Festival 2010 thanks to Heineken Green Room membership. The club lights and the soundman's enthusiasm for turning up the bass was a contrast to their online image of red xylophones, casiotones, pale pink balloons in bare cream apartments with charmingly peeling paint, scrapbooks of pressed wild flowers, The Virgin Suicides, drawing in notebooks, old typewriters, synths, vintage dresses, and nordic sensibilities...from Brooklyn.

Sad Song, The Bird of Music

Or more delicate though similarly incongruous, a pair of real Norwegians in the Esplanade Concert Hall:


Kings of Convenience at Mosaic Music Festival 2010.


Erlend Øye during I'd Rather Dance doing his nerdy best in the non-mosh pit. His dance moves were even more aunty-ishly dorky (see vid evidence below).


Riot on an Empty Street, Homesick


Riot on an Empty Street, I'd Rather Dance





The Restaurant Week menu at Chiharu being a bit dismal, we went with the omakase course instead: Zensai (five kinds of appetisers of the day), Otsukuri (sashimi), Kurobata no wasabi shoyu yaki, Arani (chopped fish head in sweet sauce), Hiyashi tomato, Nigiri sushi, Vanilla ice-cream anzu soe (apricot syrup). The raw stuff was suitably fresh but nothing was terribly outstanding.




Well-executed menu during Restaurant Week at Absinthe: Tartare of Hokkaido Scallops, Wakame and Citrus Dressing; Braised Kurobuta Pork Belly, Star Aniseed Jus, Fennel Salad; French Duck Breast, Sauteed Potatoes; Grilled Pink Snapper, Salad of Baby Spinach and Spelt, Lobster Scented Hollandaise; Vanilla Creme Brulee, Raspberry Sorbet.



Surprisingly bad food at Ricciotti (China Square Central): the calamari rings on 5 out of 6 plates of antipasto were cold; 2 out of 3 people thought the spiciness of the red snapper overwhelmed any taste of the fish; 3 out of 3 people could not bear the saltiness of the tagliolini; 6 out of 6 people were greatly disappointed by the dry chocolate cake. Arguably, it was the 9 alcoholic units in one body and the paucity of Hokkien vocab in another that resulted in discussions about hanging bak kwa to fend off ghosts of Muslim and Jewish origin, the indignity of being mummified to be stared at by future generations, the time-zone FAIL of international IT support and the uses of vibrating mascara sticks and why such items were an essential part of one's gender-non-specific makeup collection.






Mostly tasty menu at The White Rabbit accompanied by a glass of Mumm champagne: Chestnut and sweet onion soup served with trumpette mushrooms and gruyere croutons; Roasted root winter vegetables served with poached egg and truffle vinaigrette (it took some time before any one could smell the truffle shaving); Grilled vegetable pasta sauteed with garlic and flambeed with vodka - the pasta itself was bland so each mouthful had to be accompanied by a slice of grilled veggie; Juicy tender chestnut stuffed farm chicken served with carrot puree, cabbage, bacon and thyme jus; good flavour pairing - white chocolate and coconut panna cotta served with a salad of pineapple and mangoes; Profiteroles with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce. 100% of the people vowed to return with family and friends in tow, the mother of three lamented that it was too late to hold her wedding reception here.



More misses than hits again at The Prime Society: strangely bland truffled mushroom soup, 100% full blood Blackmore wagyu and yuzu carpaccio, tendon-y Gunpowered beef with a taste-edge of bak kwa, vanilla bavarois with strawberries and chocolate soil. A hunt for meal fulfilment and carbs had to be conducted after dinner.



Some of us needed to make a pitstop and refuel at shots. cafe after a leisurely afternoon on Ann Siang Hill checking out Style Nordic and Fred Perry, trawling through the massive closing down sale at Asylum, browsing Books Actually. The owner, a member of New Creation Church, was handing out a book by his pastor - Joseph Prince's Destined to Reign.

Discussions on motifs in current music and menus have been in heavy rotation these days - whether such repetition points to a lack of creativity or if it is a necessary center around which orbits a coherent universe.

Interestingly, it makes no difference to our relationship with God whether we are helplessly horizontal in bed waiting to be turned by the nurse or having a decent lie-in after a great night out with mates. In all circumstances we are meant to continually respond to him in repentance and trust and obedience.

In good times, all the good things we enjoy - the things that have been made by God, are meant to remind us of God's eternal power and his divine nature (Romans 1:20). But though we thus know God, we do not naturally honour him as God nor give thanks to him; instead we fools exchange the glory of the immortal God and instead worship the things he created (Romans 1:23). Though life is going swimmingly with no hint of God's judgement for our hard and impenitent heart, we are duly warned that if we continue to ignore God, we are storing up wrath for ourselves on the Last Day (Romans 2:5). Do we presume on the riches of God's kindness and forbearance and patience in not executing immediate judgement on us? God's kindness is meant to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4) and should not be taken as licence to continue in rebellious sin.

In times of suffering and illness and death, we ought to respond too in repentance and faith in God. This is not to say that a specific suffering or sickness is necessarily due to a specific sin which we are meant to repent of:

1. Suffering and death is a result of sin in general and the attendant fallenness of this world and the humans therein. Rebellion against God and how he designed the world and the innate evil in all humans has resulted in the wrong use of all creation by all people, and suffering and pain is a natural consequence of such incorrect use. Death came into the world because of the rebellion of man (Genesis 3) as a right and just consequence of sinning against God. So we all deserve to live out the results of our choice to deny God as our lord - suffering and then death. When we see a sick person, or when we are in pain or troubled, or when we offer our condolences to the relatives of someone recently departed, we are to remember that something is very wrong with us and the world and we need to turn back to God. But we find we cannot do this on our own and need a saviour to save us from this tragic mess.

2. God tells us that some suffering is meant for the good of those who love God - "God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness" for "without holiness no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:10,14). Suffering is never good in itself but right response to calamitous evils will work for our good in maturing us in our relationship with God, for suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope, and hope does not disappoint (Romans 5:3-4).

This is not to say that we live in a dualistic universe where God the Good and Satan the Evil battle it out day after day and sometimes, God manages to turn a bad situation into something good. Rather the Bible's view is that God is completely and utterly sovereign over everything in his creation.

And as to why God would allow suffering:

How can God allow suffering and evil in the world? from A Passion for Life on Vimeo.

4. Ultimately, there are many things we will not understand because we are not God. And we are wrong to assume that God owes us an explanation for everything. God has already told us what he is more concerned about: to be worshipped and trusted. (See the Book of Job.)

3. In fact, trouble will specially attend God's people. There will be opposition and persecution of those who are the children of God just because they are his children. After all, we follow in the footsteps of his Son, the rejected and crucified Messiah. So he said "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul?" (Mark 8:34-38) and "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you...If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also." (John 15:18,20). And Paul warns us "...everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12).

So there is no biblical evidence for the teaching that that a prosperous, healthy life means we have God's favour and vice versa. God did not create a mechanistic universe that is mere cause and effect, he created a universe in which he himself is the only sovereign God in control of all things.

And when Jesus himself walked on the earth, he did not care for a healing ministry even though he could heal an entire catalogue of illnesses and even raise the dead. Rather, he was concerned about teaching about himself and what he would do to save them rather than healing in the here-and-now (see eg. Mark 1:15,21,35-39; 2:2,13; 3:14,22-23; 4:1; 6:1-2,34; 7:14; 8:31,34; 9:30-31; 10:1; 12:1,35). In fact:

There were some present at that very time who told [Jesus] about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them,"Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

And he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, 'Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?' And he answered him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'" (Luke 13:1-9)

Jesus' point was not so much that those who suffered were any more wicked than those who escaped such a fate. The assumption was that all deserved to die and that it was only God's mercy that kept them alive to give them time to repent.*

Do we see suffering, illness, pain and death? Are we experiencing great troubles and difficulties? Let these be sufficient warning of our destination in the forever if we do not acknowledge him as God now that we have been given the opportunity to bear the fruit of repentance.

There will indeed be a time when there will be no more sadness and grieving. On this Last Day, all the consequences of our rebellion against God and our abuse of his creation will be reversed, because of Jesus' prior payment for our sins by his death on the cross. But for those who did not, while it was not yet the Last Day, repent and turn back to God, this Last Day will be the first day of eternal suffering and death forever.

So in the unmerited favour of this now-but-not-yet time, let us be put on high alert by God's judgement on Job's "comforters". Their reductivist view that Job's secret unconfessed sins must have caused his sufferings was a great insult to God and presented a great temptation to Job: to confess sins that weren't there in order to try to retrieve his prosperity. If Job had succumbed, it would have meant that Job cared more for prosperity than for his integrity or for the Lord himself; and the Lord would have lost his wager. Their counsel, if followed, would have actually led Job away from the Lord; Job would have been reduced to being yet one more person interested in seeking God for merely personal gain.*

We have ample evidence from human history as recorded in the Bible to know that God is good and trustworthy and rightly desires to be worshipped by his creatures, whatever the circumstances of life. So we are without excuse if we do not repent from our self-centered wants of health and wealth and worldly success (even more so if our quest for more faith or deeper knowledge of God or even our "repentance" is with the aim of addressing these wants) or from demanding answers for our situation, and turn towards God and his desires that have already been clearly revealed in his Word.


*D.A. Carson's How Long, O Lord? is very good. John Piper and Justin Taylor, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God might also be worth a read.