How to Beat the Boredom

Ecclesiastes 11:1-6

Ecclesiastes, Part 17

Solomon moves even closer to his mighty conclusion to fear God and keep his commandments. He has dealt with the monotony of life, the futility of wealth, the vanity of wisdom, and the certainty of death. Is life boring? For some, they would say, YES, others would say, NO. What makes life boring for some people? Children often moan they are bored. How can we beat the boredom of life?

When we trusted Christ as Savior, we married adventure, and that means a life of living by faith and expecting the unexpected.

God is saying in these verses, BE BULLISH! Be bold and aggressive, work, give and invest with all your heart. The older we get the more cautious we become. If we're not careful, we can replace the bold risks of faith with a methodical manner that fails to move forward. Some might say, "Take it easy- don't exert yourself," but God says here, "Go for it." Man might say, "Hold on to what you've got, things are going to get worse." God says, "Take challenges, for life without new adventures will get boring." Solomon gives two picturesque illustrations to show aggressive activity, the merchant sending out his ships and the farmer sowing his seed. Both require a lot of labor, planning, and work. Yet neither is guaranteed ultimate success because there are so many conditions beyond our control. That must not keep one from taking the challenge.

1. CAST YOUR BREAD ON THE WATERS, but don't put all your eggs in one basket, v.1, 2

This is an ancient Arabic proverb which Solomon had heard. The admonition does not mean to throw away your commodity (bread or grain) into the water for it to sink. The idea is to put that which you worked hard for into ships in order to sell your grain for a legitimate profit. Do not hoard your possessions. As you send out your grain into ships, don't put all your grain in one ship, for that one ship might be sunk, or robbed. Verse two says to "give a portion to seven, and also to eight" (ships). It is wise to split up your resources, because we do not know "what evil shall be upon the earth." Eventually those ships will return with a good investment. There is a risk involved in sending out those ships. They might hit bad weather, there might be thieves upon the ships, or thieves upon the waters, they might make bad business deals. That is why it is wise to split your investment, but it is worth the risk to do good and cast your bread on the waters. Life is boring when we just wait for things to happen.

Solomon sent out ships and every three years they would return with rich cargo of gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks (1 Kings 10:22, 23).

How can we apply this to wise investing? Do not put all your money into one fund or one stock. Split up your investments into various kinds of large and small businesses.

GIVING can also be applied here. We give to missionaries and they go across the waters to tell others of Christ. It is a great joy when they return to tell us of the ministry the Lord has given them or souls that have been saved. I look forward to the McPhail's coming later in November to tell us about the work in Cambodia which we have supported. A life free from boredom is a life that is giving. Are you giving your time to worthy causes, or are you giving your finances to the work of the Lord and seeing the results of what you give? Cast your bread on the waters does not mean we give blindly, or take stupid challenges, but that we are to take risks.

There is a promise attached to wise investing and giving: "thou shalt find it after many days." We do not see the return from an investment immediately, but over time there will be a reward.

2. GET GOING AND MAKE THINGS HAPPEN, don't wait for things to happen, v.3, 4

Verse three: Sometimes you can tell what is going to happen by looking at the circumstances. If the clouds be full of water, then it will most likely rain. We cannot control all the circumstances. Plan accordingly; if it looks like it's going to rain, bring an umbrella to work!

Other times you can't tell what is going to happen. Daily life contains many disruptions that we do not have power over. There are consequences to things that happen that sometimes we do not control. "If the tree fall…in the place where the tree fallteh, there it shall be." This tree seems to fall through a storm or inward disease. It falls without planning. Wherever it falls, that is what we have to deal with. It may fall in the middle of a street. It may fall on our house. Many "trees" fall in life in the wrong place at the wrong time. (Hurricanes, earthquakes, storms, etc. happen, disrupting our lives). There are difficult consequences to many things that are beyond our control. We need to apply diligent labor to situations that just seems to happen.

Verse four:
The wind is never right for the sower, and the clouds are never right for the reaper. The one who looks for an excuse to do nothing, will easily find one. If a person wants an excuse to stay home from church, or not to read your Bible, they can find and make a hundred different excuses.

If we just observed conditions all the time, not much would get done. We should consider the circumstances, but we must not be ruled by circumstances. If you allow circumstances to control you, nothing will ever get done. Some people wait and wait for ideal circumstances. They never come, and nothing gets done!

The principle is this: circumstances do not have to be ideal in order to do God's will. Don't wait for a perfect job before you start working. Don't wait for a perfect church before you join and start serving. Don't wait for a perfect person to marry before you say your vows!

If you need a job, the way to find one is to start praying and looking. Don't just pray, put feet to your prayers. If you have a job and want to succeed, don't just pray about working hard and being successful, but pray, then go and work hard.

3. TRUST GOD and WORK HARD, because there is no way you can ever know it all, v.5,6

Verse Five:
Question: How is the Spirit's working similar to the bones of a baby growing in the womb?

The key phrase here is "Thou knowest not" (v.2, 5a, 5b, 6). Ignorance must not be used as an excuse for inactivity or fear. We do not know how the Spirit is working. Should we say, "Oh, no one is going to be saved, so I will not go out and seek to witness or evangelize." NO! How do we know how the Spirit is working? We do not understand things that we know take place: how the bones of a baby grow in the womb, but we know it happens. It all happens in secret, in the darkness of the womb. God sometimes works in a way that we do not see, but He is working.

Verse Six: Here is hard work demonstrated. Just as the merchantman did not send out all his grain in one ship, the farmer does not sow just one kind of seed. In the morning and in the evening, he keeps his hands busy, sowing various seeds in different soils, and he trusts God for the increase. Maybe the morning sowing will not prosper but the evening labor will bring forth success. An idle mind is a devil's playground. As you work, trust God with all your heart because we ultimately do not know how God can cause our labor to prosper.

Life is an adventure of faith. Invest today and reap the blessings tomorrow. Someone has said, "There is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings." Don't sit back with excuses doing nothing: go for it, do it, move, give, pray, trust, and work! That is how to beat the boredom.