Nothing New Under the Sun?

One of the benefits of this mid-stage of life is that, in spite of living in a time that pretends to be unprecedented, I'm ready to accept that there really is "nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

Oh, there are plenty of new things under the sun. Sometimes, just for fun, I'll try to help my kids understand my world. It's a great game to play. I try to help them imagine a time before Nintendo, microwave popcorn and keyless entry for the car. My son's 12-year-old friend, riding in my (old! 2001 model year) pickup pointed to the window crank and asked, "What's this?" He had never been in a vehicle without power windows. Am I really that old?

Both sets of my children's grandparents visited this fall, and I had my boys ask them to share some childhood memories. To our delight, they told marvelous stories of a different era; my children seemed most suspicious at the story of riding to school in a horse-drawn sleigh - for real. Could anyone they know actually have lived in such a time?

I admit that at times I feel overwhelmed. My grandparents (all born at the start of the 20th Century) didn't have to memorize online passwords or retrieve voicemail. They didn't have to protect their kids from the dark side of the internet. They never had to fuss with batteries for the remote control, or organize a plethora of digital photos, or use the self-checkout at the hardware store (definitely not a perfected technology!)

Sometimes I despair of keeping up at all with the firehose-stream of incoming information. Just yesterday, we tried shopping for a TV, and discovered there is yet another whole language to learn - plasma, lcd, led, 1080p in hd! I can't keep up.

It's tempting to assume earlier times were blissful and easy. But I'm also old enough to know that's not true. While my grandparents and great-grandparents did not deal with the digital technology and info-noise you and I manage every day, they had to acquire knowledge and technology completely beyond me now. Could I diagnose an ailing milk-cow, or operate a wood-stove at precise temperatures as my grandmother did? Would I know how to repair a damaged wagon or read the weather at harvest time? Not to mention, could I have fled the nation of my birth as a refugee and started with nothing in a cold land speaking a foreign tongue? Trust me, I don't have it that bad if my "hassle" is forgetting a username and password.

Which gets me back to thinking, the essential issues have always been the same. Can I clear the deck of my life enough to be sure I am connecting with my heavenly Father? Am I growing in understanding, and gaining a wise heart? Do I grasp how to lead my family closer to the cross of Jesus Christ?

I could spend my lifetime gathering and maintaining "stuff", but to what end? There truly is "nothing new under the sun" because ancient people and we are much the same. We sense these deep holes of longing, and spend far too much time trying to fill the holes with habits and handbags filled with goods. I love the marvel of technology, but the most wondrous gadget still leaves me empty. We get a little closer with our Facebooks and text messages, but the pseudo-intimacy is a social sugar-high.

The Ecclesiast said, "God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those who please him" (Ecclesiastes 2:26). And the prophet reminds us that "The Lord has told you what is good, and what he requires: do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God" (Micah 7:8).

Nothing new under the sun, right? Thank God for that.