Teenage Poetry

In my junior and senior year of high school I went through what could only be described as my teenage angst phase. During this phase, I joined a literary magazine club with a bunch of other artsy students who would basically fit the mold of angst filled teenagers who are disaffected with the world. I don't think that I was all that disaffected, but I did think that my poetry was particularly thoughtful. I doubt that I have any samples left of my early literary prowess, but I can tell you that it fits most characteristics of cheesy teenage poetry.

Guess what my favorite book of the Bible was during these years? Ecclesiastes, of course. Talk about angst. The writer of Ecclesiastes is definitely a model for all of those disaffected youths. Anyone who declares everything about life meaningless would have fit right in at our literary magazine meetings.

The truth is that all of us have been kindred spirits with the writer of Ecclesiastes. When life hits the wall, there is not much that seems meaningful. Even when life has not hit a wall, there are times when our souls ask what is the point of all of this. Why am I working so hard just to have more money to by more stuff? Why is it so important that I go to this school or follow this career path? Why do worry so much about what I wear or what I drive? The truth--all of it is pretty meaningless.

So if all of that is meaningless, what is the point of anything? Well, the writer of Ecclesiastes explains it well when he says that the end of all of this is to fear God and keep His commandments. So what does that look like? It means that the things that we should ascribe meaning to are those things that enable us or empower us to serve God. This means that if making more money will help you to serve God, then, by all means, make the money. But, if focusing on making more money does not honor God or enable you to better serve Him, reevaluate things. The same goes for everything else.

My teenage poetry days are over, but the wisdom of the book of Ecclesiastes still impacts my worldview. It can be a great reminder that this world is not our home. What we see will pass away, but what we believe impacts forever.