Insanity of Vanity

 

Every year when Christmas is over and done, everyone's attention shifts to the New Year.

It is then when all sorts of predictions and speculations are made regarding what might happen over the next twelve months. It is at this is the time of year in particular when many people seek out psychics and spiritualists to learn what the future may hold for them.

Someone may say to you, "Let's ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do." But shouldn't people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead?

Isaiah 8:19, New Living Translation.

I have never understood that part of human nature - that part that desires to know what the future holds. I guess it is because I have enough on my plate just getting through today without saying or doing something I shouldn't and/or missing an opportunity to improve my life and/or the life of someone around me. I have wasted too many days chasing after things that have no real and lasting value - temporary pleasures and thrills. I have spent far too many days buying into the minutia that if I just dress a certain way and talk a certain way and own certain things that I will be happy and fulfilled.

It all looks and sounds so good, doesn't it? But only if we don't look to hard or too long. For if we did, then we would see the insanity of our vanity. We would realize that we are chasing the wind. No matter how long or how hard we pursue all the things that we have become convinced will bring us happiness and contentment, we never really obtain our goal. For even if we succeed in grasping hold of something that - for a moment - really satisfies, we either can't get enough of it, or the novelty wears off and it no longer holds our interest. Then we wonder why we ever wanted it in the first place. After so many times of going through this vicious circle we either give up entirely, or we hang on to what we got and try to convince ourselves and others that we are truly happy with our life.

There is only one way to fill that emptiness inside of us. And the irony of it is in the solution, for it is only by taking the focus off of ourselves and instead directing our attention as to how we can improve the life of those around us that we become whole. When we spend our time and energy toward meeting the needs of others with genuine love and compassion, it is then when "our cup runneth over." For it is then when we become like the one in whose image we were created. It is then when we become sons and daughters of the Lord God most High, and co-heirs of the kingdom of heaven. We become one with each other and our Father in heaven, in whom there is no darkness at all.

Look to God's instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.

Isaiah 8:20-22, New Living Translation