So, the kids’ show BLUEY and ECCLESIASTES are basically the same thing. (Hear me out.)

[0:00] The other day I was doing some philosophizing and studying on the weighty matters of life. Things like Ecclesiastes, the writings of Blaise Pascal, and the children's TV show Bluey. Yes, the colorful, playful, delightful kids show about cartoon dogs that comes to us all the way from Australia, made me think about Ecclesiastes. How, why, what on earth is going on here? We need to unpack it. There's a lot going on. I'm excited about this one. If you're a parent, if you're around children, or if you just like kids shows, and even though you're a grown-up just like me, no judging. You've probably heard or seen something about the show Bluey. And if you haven't, I sincerely suggest that you go and check it out. It's so good that I've actually asked my kids if they want to watch it so that we can all sit down together and watch this show. And just to kind of give you a little peek behind where I'm going with this. One of

[0:46] the things that I love most about Bluey is how much it focuses on the dignity, the joy, the beauty of all the mundane little things that we tend to just want to skip past. And it all started when I was listening to this podcast where I was reading this quote from Blaise Pascal that I just have to share with you that blew my mind. And even though I've heard it before 100 times and I know exactly where it's going, I just I have to uh have to talk about this. So, here's this quote from Blaise Pascal. Ignore all the ads. We never keep to the present. We recall the past, we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow incoming and we're trying to hurry it up. Or we recall the past as if to stay it's too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us

[1:36] and do not think of the only one that does. So vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is that the present usually hurts. We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us and if we find it enjoyable, we're sorry to see it slip away. We try to give it the support of the future and think how we are going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time we can never be sure of reaching. Let each of us examine his thoughts. He will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus, we never actually live, but hope to live. And since we are always

[2:25] planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so. Pause and and reflect on that because there's so much happening in that in that passage that I just really I think you would enjoy if you really stop and think about it. Here's the key though. The thing about Bluey that distinguishes it from different kids shows, other kids shows try to enrapture the attention of children by presenting them with all kinds of fantastically crazy, you know, magical storylines where maybe they um you know, the kids have secret superpowers that only show up when their parents aren't in the room. Or the girl can talk to toys like in Doc McStuffins and can and heal them of the things that are making them feel bad, but only when there's no grown-ups present. Or things like, you know, Toy Story or whatever, where it's this magical world that's different from the world that we

[3:14] inhabit. The thing about Bluey is that it is exactly like the world that we inhabit and all of the characters deal with the same kinds of things that we do. Boredom. Being a little bit too addicted to smartphones. Um being tired and not having the energy to play with your kids the way that you you think that they want you to, but making the best of of the of a good situation. And the thing about Bluey is that it highlights how beautiful all the mundane things are and how wonderful it can be to just stop and look at a caterpillar crawling on the stem of a flower. Or to just imagine that you and your friend with whom you're sitting are actually butterflies and then to get up and pretend to just fly around. All of the wonderful things that kids do. Now, what on earth does this have to do with Ecclesiastes? I don't know how long it's been since you've actually sat down and read read Ecclesiastes, but there's a lot to it.

[4:02] And I had this idea of it that when I was reading through it that it was going to just be this brutal, horrifying read. And to be candid, it kind of is. It's really difficult and painful. And it feels like you're getting poked with a sharp stick or punched repeatedly in the chest every time you read it. But there's so much in there that if you're not careful, you'll skip over and you won't understand what's being said. So, what I've done is I've grabbed a small selection of verses from Ecclesiastes that I think best illustrate this point. And I'm just going to read them to you. And what we're going to talk about afterwards is is going to make a ton of sense of what I'm discussing. So, Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 goes, "There's nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also I saw is from the hand of God. For apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him, God has given

[4:51] wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering collecting only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after the wind." That word vanity is really difficult to translate from Hebrew into English. The word itself is hebel or hevel. The B sound in Hebrew often makes a V sound. And so, it's usually pronounced it's hevel. And it really means smoke or vapor. And the guys over at Bible Project have done an incredible job of unpacking the meaning of this word. But one of the things that they point out, and I think rightly, is that it's a metaphor. Smoke looks solid, but then you reach out and try to grasp it and it just slips through your fingers. If you were to kind of try to set something on smoke, you would fall through and and break. Right? It obscures your vision. It makes

[5:38] it so that you can't see things as clearly as you want them to as as clearly as you'd like them to see. Um it's confusing. It seems one way, but it's another. And so, when the author of Ecclesiastes, I should say the teacher of Ecclesiastes, is using that word vanity, he's saying, "Look, things that aren't always what they seem. And you might expect things to be one way, but the truth is that it's not it's not actually going to be that way. It's not actually going to happen that way. And so, one of the key lessons of Ecclesiastes is that life is complicated and confusing and even the best things have sadness and brokenness in them. And I'm not giving you any news here. If you've lived longer than a couple of weeks on this earth, you know that that's the way the things are. Yet at the same time, this Pascal quote I just read to you and this Ecclesiastes passage that I just read

[6:28] fit together in a really interesting way that causes you to recognize that one of the things that you should be doing if you want to live a good life is be grateful in the moment for every good thing that you have. Stop and think about that for a minute. Be grateful for everything that you have. If you plan a vacation and all you do all year long is look forward to the vacation, what are you doing with the time that you have in between? When my kids are thinking about, "Oh gosh, I just can't wait until Saturday's with Daddy, that day that we all get to just hang out and spend a bunch of time, many hours in a row hanging out and playing," what are they doing with the rest of that time if that's all that they're looking forward to? There's a cliché that's so overdone these days that's live in the present. And a lot of people doubt if that's even good advice. They just wonder like, "Okay, but if I live in the present, what's going to happen about my future? If I live in the present, I'm not going to I'm not going

[7:15] to reconcile the things from my past. I'm not going to be able to move forward, right? The future is the only thing that really exists." Stop for a moment. Examine that thought. You can only ever make choices now. You can plan to make a choice on a different day, but the only choices you actually get to make are in a now moment. And at that time, it'll be now when you make that choice. Sorry, this is getting weird about time and philosophical. My point is, whatever is in front of you to do today, whatever is on the docket, whatever is filling up your time, make the most of it. Enjoy every second of it. Eating, drinking, and finding enjoyment in your toil. That word toil is not a pleasant word for work, by the way. That's like the hard work of like digging trenches. That is an uncomfortable word describing hard work, the kind that exhausts you at the end of the day. In fact, let's keep going and read some read about some other examples. This is uh Ecclesiastes

[8:02] 3:12-13. "I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live. Also, that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. This is God's gift to man. God gifts gives a gift to human beings to enjoy even the mundane things in life. To enjoy having a cup of coffee. Here, I have a cup of coffee that I made myself, a latte out of my own little Breville Barista Express coffee machine. And I have one of these every day and it would be so easy for me to just take this thing for granted. But you know what I'm going to do right now? I'm just going to take a drink of it and enjoy it. It's a gift. It's a blessing. It's something that I don't have to have, but that I get to enjoy. In fact, let's keep going. This here is uh let's see, I believe it's yeah, Ecclesiastes 5:18 uh and onward.

[8:50] "Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun, the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil, this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart." Continue on. I believe this is 7, yeah. 75 7:14. "In the day of prosperity, be joyful, and in the day of adversity, consider. God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not found find out anything that will be after him." Ecclesiastes 8:15. "And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun." Enjoy

[9:37] Oh, this is great. This is Ecclesiastes 9:7 and 9. "Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun." We're going to get in a moment to what any of this has to do with eternity. I know that this is kind of a weird thing that I'm going to have to tie together for you guys, and I understand that. So, let's work on that right now. One of the key secret silver bullets to the Christian life is to know that number one, this life is not all there is. That there is an eternity coming, and we will get to that in a minute, and the payoff is so beautiful. I can't wait for it. But, that nevertheless, we have to go through this life, which itself is full

[10:25] of all kinds of brokenness and heartache and evil. We must not close our eyes and plug our ears and deny that reality. Death, time, and chance happen to us all and just have a real way of throwing a wrench even to the best-laid plans and even into things that looked beautiful from the beginning. This sparks a conversation about spiritual evil and the forces that are trying to work against God's purposes in the world, which will be a whole other conversation for a whole other day. But, right now, I want you to just reckon with the fact that life is hard under the sun in this age before the age to come, we toil through and suffer through so many things. And yet, God is still so good to us, and there's so much beauty and so much wonder and so much enjoyment in today. And it is acknowledging our mortality,

[11:14] acknowledging our frailty, acknowledging our lack of self-control, acknowledging that we're not the ones holding up our corner of the universe, and that things could very well go south tomorrow because they're not guaranteed. It's acknowledging that and choosing to enjoy everything for all the good that's in every day, in every moment. That is the goal, and that is one of the most amazing things that you can accomplish in the Christian life, and it's a gift of God that only he can give. It's not something that we can arrive at with our own human wisdom. So, I'm I'm going to ask you to pray for that. Honestly, pray for yourself. Pray for me that I have that. But, pray for yourself that you can live with that kind of a perspective in mind. Now, how does this all fit together? Let's tie it all down. There has been a charge levied against me and against other people who talk about eternity, heaven, the new creation, the new heavens and new earth, all of that stuff that we

[12:02] were were were causing people to be so heavenly minded that they're of no earthly good. I talk about this in my book, which you can grab at a copy. There's a a link down in the description. You can grab a copy if you want one. Um I put a lot of work into it, and it's really based It's what this channel is based on. But, I I write about this in the book where I say, "I think that that phrase comes directly from the mouth of Satan." I think that it was intended to cause people to not think about eternity and to not imagine what eternity will be like. But, there is a valid charge behind it in that if all you're doing is thinking only about eternity, that you don't drag it into the present and live it out now in light of the gospel, then you've missed something. If you're only ever looking forward to something, and you don't have anything in you that's enjoying the present

[12:49] moment as you traverse that journey, you're going to waste all your time. You're going to look back and wonder what you did with your life. This is why it's such a good news that it's not heaven to which we are heading eternally, but the new heavens and the new earth, because what we can do right now is make our surrounding circumstances look more and more like that eternal garden city. We talk about that in other videos. You can go and just browse my channel, and you'll see what I'm talking about. So, Ecclesiastes is not my favorite book in the Bible, but it's also it's also not the last book in the Bible for me, but it is such a helpful corrective and it's such a helpful reframe because this life is hard. But, there are so many good, beautiful things in every moment that we should pause and enjoy as a gift from God himself. One of my favorite episodes of Bluey is a really simple, silly, playful game where the girls, Bluey and Bingo,

[13:38] blow up a balloon and are playing a game they call keepy uppy, where they're trying to keep the balloon in the air by bouncing it. They can't hold it. They have to bounce it in the air and not let it touch the ground. And their dad steps in to make this an increasingly more difficult task. He sets up fans to blow the balloon away. He bumps it himself and knocks it away that they have to run and grab it. Um and it's an entire episode just about playing keepy uppy. And I paused for a moment after that episode was done, and I recognized the present moment. Here I am laying down on the couch, holding my 5-year-old daughter, who in January is going to turn six. I'm over there looking at my son, and he is eight. I remembered when he was this big, and I was holding him, and he was so small, and I I enjoyed those days, but I always wish I could have enjoyed them more. And I thought to myself, here I am just enjoying my

[14:25] family, and I have this opportunity to enjoy every good thing, every good gift I have in this moment, and to stop and give gratitude for it. And I was just thinking, you know, I've played this game with my kids, and I loved it, and it was so much fun. And I have so many things to be thankful for right now that I don't deserve, that are blessings on top of everything, that if I'm not careful, I'll take for granted. Or, I can ignore these things in favor of thinking about all this other amazing stuff that I'm heading toward and miss what's happening right now and miss the beautiful things that make today excellent. And the secret of eternity in this case, one of the most beautiful things that I want to impart to you in this in this teaching, literally, one of my favorite verses also comes to us from Ecclesiastes, and it goes like this. It's Ecclesiastes

[15:12] 3:11. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. Yet, no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. And in the context, it's saying something a little different, but what it is saying at the very least is this, that God has placed eternity in the heart of human beings, in the mind of human beings for us to consider. We know that there's more than this. We know that we're headed for something more than this. But, one of the things that's going to make that age so incredible, the external restoration that we've talked about on this channel is one of the most amazing things, right? The fact that there will be a renewed earth, that God's remaking this place in the same beauty and glory and splendor that it held in the very beginning. But, that's not all. He's also restoring us. Not just our physical existence, but our spiritual existence, our internal life,

[16:00] all of this stuff. He's remaking us as well. And one of the things that will mark our experience there is moment by moment joy and gratitude for everything, absolutely everything. I have talked to my children about this often. A couple years ago, we went on vacation to Universal Orlando, and it was an incredible experience. We look back on it in our lives are just We are filled with wonderful memories. We'll sometimes grab like the VR headset and and watch like those those 360 360° videos of the rides that we were able to get on to kind of go back and reminisce. We'll go back through old photos all the time and just enjoy what a wonderful time that was, and it it's created a lot of present moments of beauty and joy today long after the fact. But, I was talking to my son, who was having a hard time with some of his school stuff, and what

[16:47] I told him was that so much of this comes down to his attitude. If our lights were off, if the power went out, and he had no video games, and all he had was his imagination, his sister, and his parents in this house, he could have a great time, and he could be happy, and he could enjoy everything simply by being grateful for what he does have. But, if he has a bad attitude, he could be standing in the middle of Diagon Alley, or standing in the middle of Volcano Bay, the water park they have at the Universal parks and and and all that. He could be standing right in the middle of his favorite places in the world with a bad attitude and be grateful for none of it. And enjoy none of it and be miserable. And so, what's my advice to you? Think about eternity. Think about the new creation. Plan for the next life. Recognize that you are heading towards an eternal existence of total bliss in a completely remade world if you're a

[17:36] follower of Jesus. That is your future. That is your your fate. And you're just at an earlier point on that continuum today. God is good. This age is full of all kinds of difficulties and hardships, but this age is good and beautiful as well, and God has placed eternity in your heart so that moment by moment, you can give gratitude and have joy in all of the mundane, beautiful things that happen every day that you might not normally pause to recognize. And that your eternal life will be filled up of just the same kind of thing. Imagine the internal state of joy of an eternity of beautiful moments that aren't these huge, you know, massive events every single day of every year, but small things like watching a caterpillar crawl on the flower on a on a stem of a flower, or just hearing the laugh of a person that you love when you

[18:25] tell a joke and it blesses them and brings them joy. The small things in life that create all of these incredible moments of joy and beauty are real, and they're yours, and they're yours to enjoy. So, my recommendation to you, even if you are a grown-up and you're not a child, or even if you don't have children, even if you're not a grown-up, go watch some Bluey. Watch it with some people that you love. Pause more frequently and enjoy all of the beautiful moments that you have already in your blessed life, and don't spend all your time just planning to live, but live and enjoy the moments that God has given to you.