LIFE…MORE THAN MONUMENTS AND PROJECTS

Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names – Psalm 49: 11

“Here is another form of pleasure – projects, parks, pools. Many today attempt to find satisfaction in this way. There is pleasure in designing and building a house. In San Jose, California, visitors can tour the Winchester Mystery House, built by a woman who could not stop building. The house is a maze of rooms, doors that open to blank walls, staircases that go nowhere…anything, just to keep on building.

Some wealthy people become known as philanthropists because they endow beautiful public buildings, but they always manage to get their names engraved on a brass plaque somewhere in the building. All they are really doing is indulging themselves! It was said of the Emperor Nero that he found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble. However, history tells us that his beautification project was not for the benefit of Rome, but for his own gratification and fame.

Solomon too gave himself to this. His own house took fourteen years to build, the temple took seven. He built houses for his many wives whom he brought to Jerusalem, spending on them time, money, and interest. Southwest of Jerusalem, in a place seldom visited by tourists, there exist today vast depressions in the earth which are still called the Pools of Solomon, which he used to water the groves of trees he planted in an effort to find satisfaction for his own heart.

He belonged to the jet-set of that day…”My heart took delight in all my work,” but that was all the reward he got for his labor – momentary enjoyment. Each time he repeated it he enjoyed it a little less. “My conclusion,” Solomon suggests, “is that it was not worth it.” Like a candle, it all burned away, leaving him jaded and disappointed. Nothing could excite him after that. He concludes that it was all “meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” He was burned out!

[Meditation] – Like Solomon, many rich and wealthy people are searching for fulfilment and satisfaction by erecting ‘Monuments to soothe Self’ and pursuing ‘Projects to feed Pride.’ Even though they call their lands (businesses, ministries, parks, projects) after their own names, strangers often acquire what they toiled and laboured for! True pleasure and lasting legacies are found in knowing, serving and pleasing God; building and blessing other lives and destinies for Him. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures (Job 36:11).