There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place? | Ecclesiastes 6.1-6
The title of this article is the same as my sermon from Sunday. For those paying attention, I didn’t really talk much about either stewardship or legacy. I also never got into chapter 6 (which we were supposed to cover). This is because there was simply too much content. Instead of preaching through chapter 6 next week (which repeats many of the same concepts), I am going to give an epilogue to the sermon via blog.
In chapter 6, the pundit continues to acknowledge that life is unable to provide fulfillment, to the extent of calling it a grievous evil. After stating his case, he poses the rhetorical question: For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun (12)? This question is rhetorical because he has already given the answer in chapter 5; he wants to make it perfectly clear that there is nothing under the sun that can help you find ‘the good life.’ The only way for your life to find joy in the midst of grievous evil is to live the role that God has created you for; to be a steward of this life.
To be a steward means using your time, energy, and relationships to make much of God’s goodness. Your time will be prioritized to make space for serving God and others. Your energy will be used to create good things that reflect God’s beauty. Your relationships will be valued as people created in the image of God struggling to find Him in this life. In all of this, Jesus becomes the focus of why you exist; your life becomes oriented around Him.
The promise that comes with this is that your life will be successful; your life will leave a legacy because it is attached to God’s eternal plan. For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? The fact that God is in charge of the future means that He can use your life, no matter how big or small you think you contribution is, to write His story. Success may not look like earthly praise or financial gain, but the legacy you leave in the service of God will not fade. You do not have as much control over the results, but no one else can alter or destroy them either. The great thing about a life well lived is that it put all outcomes, immediate and future, in the hands of God.
I will end with a quick story. Last week my Grandma Van passed away. As I remembered her life, I found myself thinking a lot about my Grandpa Henry (her husband). At the end of his life he quoted Ecclesiastes 5 stating: I came into the world with nothing and I am leaving with nothing, I pretty much held my own. He died with little to his name, having invested his life in other people. While his name may not be known and Google doesn’t have much to say about him, there are a lot of people who had their lives affected by him. I have no numbers and I cannot measure it by any earthly means, but I know the legacy left on me, and that is enough to fuel my stewardship.