Midweek Meditation: "How We Build a Kingdom of Restlessness"

Below is an excerpt from Jan David Hettinga's "Still Restless." Beware!

We articulate a kingdom in these ways, and more:

• When I earn enough money, I'll feel truly secure.
• If I marry the right person and we build a home together, I'll be happy.
• Because I'm smart, and surround myself with brilliant people, I'm significant.
• My family's prominence in society makes me influential and respected.
• A great career and growing reputation mark me as somebody important.
• Winning at whatever I set out to accomplish proves I'm successful.

I kingdom rises up when we hold something tightly in our hands. It could be our ambition, athletic ability, car, career, children, education, home, spouse, or wealth - even a rank or reputation and the influence it garners. 

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Perhaps, let me offer a response on what it means to build a kingdom of restfulness. A heart of restfulness would begin with a recognition of biblical wisdom:

• Money: "Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread." (Proverbs 30:8)
• Marriage: "At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven." (Matt 22:30)
• Significance and Success:
  
   "4I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. 7I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harema as well—the delights of a man’s heart. 9I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. 10I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. 11Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 2:4-11)

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