So ... What Next?

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(Prior to reading this sermon, you might want to read Ecclesiastes 2:12-23.)

On Christmas morning, my wife Susan and I had the pleasure of having our year-and-a-half-old grandson Taylor with us for breakfast and a time of opening gifts. It was great fun watching him as he opened each present, delighting in tearing the paper off the box and finding what was inside, sometimes even pausing for a fraction of a moment to inspect or play with its contents. I think his favorite gift was a box of Ritz cheese-and-crackers that his grandmother gave him. But after each package was opened, and each brief inspection completed, it was instantly on to the next box, searching for another bow to tear off, another bit of colored paper to rip away.

What's next? What's next? What's next?

We've all heard stories of children who, after they had opened all of their gifts on Christmas morning--more gifts than they could have had any right to reasonably expect, since their parents probably went into debt to provide them--sullenly sit on the floor and say with a poorly-disguised sense of disappointment, "Is that all?"

Remember that old song that Peggy Lee used to sing: "Is That All There Is?"

Is that all there is? Is that all there is?
If that's all there is, my friend, then let's keep dancing.
Let's break out the booze and have a ball,
If that's all there is.
(copyright Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller)

One of the most depressing songs ever written, both for its sense of ingratitude and its sense of hopelessness.



King David's son Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived, by the gift of God, and he was also one of the very wealthiest, relative to the culture that he lived in. We read a little bit earlier about his despairing conclusion regarding the life of man: "... all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity." "Vanity of vanities," said Solomon. "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Everything is pointless; everything is useless.

How did he get there?

"I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds.

"So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 2:3-11 NKJV).

Is that all there is?

Even in the life of the church, we suffer from a similar malady. We get so busy during the rising crescendo of the holiday season that culminates in our Christmas service, and then suddenly, it's done. So ... what's next? Then we start trudging along again until we get to Easter, another high season in the year, and then that's done, and for some of us at least, it's curiously unfulfilling. Is that all there is? So ... what's next?

In our personal lives too, we encounter the same phenomena; we forget sometimes that there are many more miles to walk than there are milestones. We focus on some big event--our graduation, our wedding, the birth of a child--and suddenly we reach it, and suddenly it's done, and before us lay many more weary miles to walk. So ... what's next? Wasn't there supposed to be some kind of happily-ever-after here?

Not everyone is suffering from a case of "Is that all there is" because of too many presents, too much luxury, or too much wealth. For some of us, the same question arises out of sorrow.

We've had a long season of death here in our little church in upstate New York. There was Dorothy awhile back, and then all in a rush we lost Jim, and Carlton, and Jake. And each time, the family members left behind were faced with the almost-impossible question: "What do I do now? What's next? I can't believe that's all there is." But there are still many more miles to walk, miles made more lonely by our sense of loss.

For some of us, we come to those questions by other means. Cheryl sends Ben off to the Marines, and Mary off to college, and suddenly her house is the emptiest it's ever been. "So ... what do I do now?" Susan has an illness that lays her flat on her back for a month, and suddenly, she's no longer the caretaker for her beloved grandson. "So ... what do I do now?"

Milestones reached, some of them wanted, some of them unwanted, but reached nonetheless, and there's no way we can turn around and retrace those steps. So ... what's next?

I don't have a silver bullet this morning that will suddenly make this all right ... or maybe I do. It all depends on whether you're willing to receive it--may God grant us that will.

The Apostle Paul lost everything he had during the course of his life and ministry. How did he respond?

"... I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:8-14 NKJV).

Several times in Scripture Paul refers to our life in Christ as a race--not a sprint where we go all-out for a few brief moments, but a marathon, where we run steadily for mile upon mile.

"Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NKJV).

Run like you want to win. Press on toward the mark. Keep your eyes on the prize at the end of the race, not the milemarkers along the way.

How do we do that? Isaiah gives us a key.

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:28-31 NKJV).

Jesus says a similar word in the gospel of Matthew.

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV).

Now, most of the time in our lives, the demands of the Lord aren't anything particularly spectacular, anything milestone-worthy. To do justly. To love mercy. To walk humbly with our God. To keep on walking patiently along the path He has prepared for us, knowing that our citizenship is in Heaven, and that's where our ultimate prize lies: When we finally see the face of God Himself.

So, in this season following a season, when our gifts have all been unwrapped, be they few or be they many--when our milestones have been passed, be they for pleasure or pain--what do we do next?

This: take the next step. Keep on walking; keep on running. Don't give in to despair. Don't give in to boredom. Don't give in to ingratitude. Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly with your God. Yoke yourself to Jesus and let Him help you carry your burden, even as you help carry His. Wait on the Lord and let Him renew your strength. And press on toward the prize.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NKJV).

We have not even begun to imagine the treasures that await us if we stay true to the course. A crown of righteousness. A resurrected body, with no more pain or death. The very face of God.

So, next time you hear Peggy Lee sing, "Is that all there is?" you can say with confidence, "No. It is not."