#13 - Joy Advent 2 {Reflections}

What is up?

Everyone?

Ryan, here in Mike's Beats Laboratory.

What's up, mike?

Hey, this podcast will air later than you know, later than now, but Broncos play the Vikings this Sunday and it is gonna be madness.

I can't wait.

I was supposed to fly out there, mike, to watch it, but some things come up at work and I can't go.

But anyway, looking forward to it.

Hey, man, one of our, one of our co-workers, got married on Saturday.

If you guys haven't heard yet, olivia Walters.

Now Olivia Goodrich got married, and the reason I bring it up is because we are in week number two of Advent.

Actually, and really we're gonna explore all the themes of Advent.

The first week was on the theme of hope.

The second week of Advent is generally the theme is peace, but we've already done a whole podcast on peace shalom, so I'm not gonna repeat that.

So if you want to really get into the Advent, feel go back and listen to my podcast on shalom.

Otherwise we're gonna jump to week three.

It doesn't matter, the order is fine, but and week three is the theme of joy, because it's joy.

We're almost to Christmas, which brings joy, and so we're like looking ahead, we're almost there, but anyway, olivia got married last Saturday and when she gave me her Bible verse.

You know, every, every wedding I do, they do like a scripture reading and she gave me her Bible verse and this is the one she picked.

Usually it's like I don't know.

First, corinthians 13.

It's like love is patient, love is kind, those kinds of verses about love.

Here was the verse Olivia picked.

It comes from the book of Ecclesiastes, of all books, and it says so I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the Sun than to eat, drink and be glad.

Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life that God has given them under the Sun.

So this is the best I've never done a wedding in which the verse was from the book of Ecclesiastes.

I mean, some people consider this book a bit of a downer.

I mean, for example, the book opens the opening line of Ecclesiastes.

You can open it up and look at it yourself.

Here's the opening line, dude, the author opens meaningless, meaningless.

Everything is meaningless, utterly meaningless.

It's a strong opener for a Bible book, if you ask me.

But really it's this incredible theme that he repeats throughout the whole book and the word there for meaningless.

It's sort of different than what we might think.

It's not.

It's not saying that nothing has meaning.

Rather, in the in the Hebrew the word is Hevel, h-e-v-e-l, and so Heville actually means something more like vapor or mist.

Remember, the Hebrew language is sort of rooted in themes or ideas.

Their words sort of embody, like this worldly kinds of things like bone and flesh and dirt and mud.

And so Heville really means something like vapor or mist, like, if you can picture that.

And so it's as if the author of Ecclesiastes is opening his book by saying, hey, like everything is vapor, like Utterly like a mist, like, imagine a vapor or a mist, like, yeah, that's your life, that's it.

I mean a vapor or a mist can get blown here and there and it sort of falls to the ground rather quickly.

It's as though it's here and then gone and that's your life.

Like you arrive, you're here and then you're gone.

And so the author of Ecclesiastes says, hey, if that's your life, it's all vapor, like it's all mist, then you might as well enjoy it.

Which brings us, of course, to our advent theme of joy, because life is fleeting and vapor like mist, like it makes the whole thing even more meaningful, like when you have kids, if you have kids or if you have a neighbor or a loved one who has kids.

There's this time like when they're infants, like if you can imagine way back then, when they're little, and like you can still wrap them up like a burrito in their blanket.

You know like they're so tiny and they're just they.

Like you know, before they're crawling, before they're eating real food, they're just infant, like tiny little babies, and they're so fragile.

But it doesn't last very long, maybe like under a year, and it's so quickly over and it doesn't last long.

And because it's so quick, because of that that year of their first you know of their life it's so fleeting, it makes that time so precious.

I read online I don't know if you've heard this mic, but I read online somewhere.

I have no idea if this is true, but it sort of feels true but that 75% of the time you'll ever spend with your child is over by the time they reach 12 years old.

So of all the time you spend with your kids, 75% of that time is already used up by the time they're 12.

And by the time they're 18, 90% of that time is used up and already spent, so that time it's it's fleeting, it's vapor, it's mist-like, and so because of that it doesn't last long.

It's so very precious, it's all an absolute gift, so don't miss it.

So this idea that it's vapor-like and mist-like, it makes this moment A gift.

Like being here with each other me and Mike in this Mike's Beats Laboratory, even being on here with you as you listen to this audio podcast.

It makes all of this a wonderful gift, so you might as well enjoy it.

There's a lot about life that doesn't make sense, a lot about life that makes us want to cry or feels unjust or just breaks our heart.

So when you find these moments of beauty or moments of joy, drink them in.

One of the commentators on Ecclesiastes calls these vestiges of joy, because that's what they are.

They're like these moments of joy in an otherwise sometimes confusing life.

So that makes, again, if it's all a gift, it makes even the most mundane moments of life or the most boring moments incredible, and you and I can find joy in the most ordinary of times, like when you do have a kid, like watching them sleep, can be an absolute source of joy.

Before my kids, during COVID, when COVID sort of broke out across the world and sort of ended everything for a short time.

In 2020, we started going every Friday to this donut shop this local donut shop to get donuts, and we called it Donut Fridays, and my kids loved it, and we still do it, although we do it now on a Saturday, because now we're back in school.

So we call it Donut Fridays on a Saturday and it was like this ordinary thing, but it became this absolute beacon of joy in our week.

So, before I leave for trips, I go on trips regularly, probably, and I always leave my kids, my kids each one and now I have to do one for the dog because my daughters make me but but I leave them all a little note, not a long one, just hey, I love you, thinking about you, praying for you.

They all have nicknames, so I wrote their nickname on the front of it and I give it to them when I leave, and now they look forward to it every time I leave.

Hopefully they don't look forward to me leaving, but they look forward to the note they get.

In fact, one time I forgot and my daughter calls me.

She's like Dad, where's my note?

It's joy.

So what the author of Ecclesiastes is saying is that we would do well to recognize the fleeting and fragile brevity of human life and the absolute brilliance of it the miracle that we're here right now and not to squander it.

In other words, don't wait until you finally get that vacation to Hawaii to find joy.

You may never get the vacation.

It's so fleeting, you never know what will happen tomorrow.

You may never make it to Hawaii.

And even if you do, if you can't find joy in the here and now, you may not find it in Hawaii.

So drink in the ordinary, yet extraordinary moments of life are here and now, and enjoy this one wild and precious life that you have, because it's way too vapor.

It's way too vapor not to enjoy a good morning walk.

It's all way too vapor to not get the dog.

You know what I'm saying.

It's way too vapor to complain about winter.

Just enjoy it.

So, in closing, then, what I told the congregation when I read this verse at Olivia's wedding is that, hey, tonight we're going to go eat and we're going to drink and we're going to dance.

So let's go and dance and enjoy each of those company tonight, because there are way less guarantees in life than any of us thought.

It's all a gift from God, and so enjoy life.

It's precious, it's full of wonder, and you'll have a joy or company, you and your toil, all the days of your life that God has given you under the sun.

So this Advent may you indeed find joy, peace.

Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends.

And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 830, which is our local gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clclriverorg.

Peace.