Cloudy With a Chance of Vanity

Listening: Tim Bowman Jr. Welcome to Faith City Album

“For all is vanity and a chasing after wind” 

Ecclesiastes 

Hello Friend! Happy Black History Month, Happy Valentine’s Day and all the things! I hope your month is going well thus far!

Let's get into it! Ok, so boom! I was recently reading Ecclesiastes and the word vanity was commonly used and repeated. As I continued to read, the more I wondered about the definition and why the writer kept using the word vanity. After I continued to read, the positioning of the word became more clear and I was able to understand the writer. In my head, I came to the conclusion that this particular book of wisdom was stating that we chase things that are empty and have no meaning. We should enjoy life, our families, friends, and work. Lastly, the only thing that matters when the great equalizer of death comes is if we are right with the Lord. My brother Josh always says that Ecclesiastes changed his life and once I was done studying the book, it made such an impact on me as well. Lean in, grab your cup of juice, and let's take this journey!

Just a bit of background: last year, I rededicated my life to Christ and also got baptized. I went through a life transition and y'all know when those things happen, we go crawling to Jesus. It’s like the cat and mouse game that us church kids play when we are living on the fence. However, this time it was different for me as I began to go to therapy. My therapist made one statement that shifted everything in me. I was going through the woes of my life and how I was upset with God; ya girl was having a good ol' pity party. As I continued to talk, my therapist said one thing to me and that was “girl, you don’t know God; you know church”. I paused, I looked up at her brown face and curly hair like mine and just stared at her. Then she had the nerve to put the cherry on top and followed up with “it is not that you are upset with him, it is the fact that you don’t know him and because you don’t know God, you are in an identity crisis. Girl, you don’t know yourself.” She told no lie so, I went on this quest to find Jesus for myself and to define who he is through my own experiences and encounters with him.

Here is a fun fact about me: I talk to myself a lot. It's a habit that I really enjoy. During my commute to work, I have many conversations with myself about all types of things and sometimes I act like I am being interviewed (only God can judge me, haha). Anyway, as I continued to have these silent conversations with myself while experiencing different churches and only listening to uplifting music, I was seeing a common theme. There is a moment happening within the body of Christ that is full of vanity. Some of the worship music is more geared to making us feel good about our futures more than worshiping God in Spirit and truth. What I mean by that is we aren't worshiping God for being God, we are worshiping God for what we want God to do in our lives. Then there is the phenomenon of shouting (dancing) to praise when praise happens with our mouth mostly, but most times we are praising due to a norm of our experiences with church. This is why we have social media pages like High Heels and Praise Breaks. Remember, I know church and not God and this is what God was showing me in my alone time. Furthermore, I was listening to someone pray and they prayed for things around health and their family members becoming 'saved' and after the prayer was done they went and fried a pork chop while gossiping on the phone. As I was noticing these things, I could not put into words what was wrong because I had not read Ecclesiastes yet. However, when I completed Ecclesiastes, it all made sense and changed my approach to God and to life.

I am not a preacher or a theologian, so you have been warned and you should also read the word of God on your own! Now that the disclaimer has been made, let me give you my summary of Ecclesiastes and I must admit, knowing what I am about to type, I am giggling. Are you ready? Here it is… GIRL, EVERYONE IS GOING TO DIE! It is pointless to judge people, it is pointless to work and never enjoy your life, chasing things that do not matter to God. It is all pointless because death is the great equalizer, and all of YOUR deeds will be brought into judgment. This brings back the examples of worship and prayer I spoke of earlier. God's biggest goal for us all is to live a life that is pleasing to him, that brings his glory and pleasure. It seems most times that we are so caught up in self and what we want that we formulate our worship and our praise to make us feel better and to position us for a bigger house or more followers, all while our souls are lost in the vanities of the world. This is why we pray empty prayers for our health while frying pork chops. This is why we can shout in church and gossip all day long. This is why we enter relationships knowing God said no. This is why I was in an identity crisis and did not even know it. I was chasing empty winds that lacked God and that were rooted in society's baseless ideologies and timelines.

I leave you with this: the Hebrew word for vanity is 'hevel', which could be defined as meaningless and or translated into "vapor" or "breath", which in the context of Ecclesiastes is the idea of something that is fleeting. Fleeting in itself means lasting for a very short time. Our time here on Earth isn't very long, so fill your time with the things that matter the most, with God at the head, to ensure you are not chasing things that are empty and pointless to your life. Within human reality, there is always a space of wanting more, but the danger of more is that after you get more, there is always more to get, and THAT is what Ecclesiastes is trying to push you away from. Sis, it is just easier doing life authentically with the Lord. 

Alright, I will talk to you later! Be well! 

Much Love Carrie B