My dad has said on more than one occasion. “Andrew, you could break an anvil with a rubber hammer.” It’s true that in my youth I was hard on stuff. Funny that as you get older and pay for all your own things, you become more and more careful. So much of our stuff has a design called planned obsolescence. What you buy today has a calculated expiration date. Phones, tablets, computers, washers, dryers, stoves, TV’s, vehicles and so much more.
We have been turned into a consumeristic society. In this system there is nothing worse than something that won’t break. If it never breaks, you only buy 1, but if it breaks or becomes obsolete, then you will keep on buying and the cycle keeps right on trucking. If all our stuff is seemingly breakable, where can we find the unbreakable?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have something unbreakable?
Ecclesiastes 4:12 says this:
And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.
There is a lion that seeks to devour every soul. He has many names. Lucifer. Morning Star. Satan. The Devil. The Deceiver. Instead of stalking you through the weeds where there is the very real fight or flight response, he lures us away from safety and we will gleefully follow the broad path towards destruction. So, how do we avoid that? Never walk alone. “Two can resist him.” Walk with Jesus. That is the answer to a whole lot of life. I’m anxious < walk with Jesus. I’m angry < walk with Jesus. I’m depressed < walk with Jesus. I’m scared < walk with Jesus.
The next part of that verse says: A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.
When I was a teenager, I found myself on a “green” broke horse. She spooked and took off running through the woods. After hitting off a few trees my right rein snapped, the leather just couldn’t hold all the weight I put on it.
That rein breaking is a great metaphor for life. We will sometimes put all our weight, all our hope and trust on something we should not. Work. Hobbies. Relationships. Wealth. The pursuit of happiness. But what happens when our lives shift? Our misplaced hope snaps and we go reeling to the ground. It sure did for Solomon where he writes in Ecclesiastes 1:2 NIRV:
“Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is completely meaningless! Nothing has any meaning.”
These are the words from arguably the wisest and wealthiest man to have ever lived. His wealth was immense—then why was he so empty? He didn’t have the correct strands in his cord.
The center strand of our life should be and needs to be God. You then take your hope and your trust and you have the three cords that are unbreakable once combined. Hope placed upon God is never disappointed and is never empty, and trust placed in God is never broken. With God in the center, with hope and trust woven around Him, that is when we truly find the unbreakable.
If you want something that will never experience planned obsolescence, it is not a something, but a someone. It is God. It is Jesus. It is Holy Spirit. The three in one. Unbroken and Unbreakable.
The question you need to answer is this: Do I want the unbreakable?
In His Service Always.
Pastor Andrew Christman
Church of Peace
***This is an excerpt from the sermon by the same title that you can watch on YouTube. Just search: Church of Peace Kewanee. You can also hear the messages live at State Road Community Church Rt. 81 at 8:45am and Church of Peace 28358 N. 900 Ave at 10:30am.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Kewanee Voice.
***This column is sponsored by the Kewanee Ministerial Association
