"I undertook great projects. . . "

 

      

      “I undertook great projects. . . “(Ecc. 2:4) Do we break our lives up into a series of projects designed to bring meaning to our existence? The writer of Ecclesiastes goes on to say that even though he put his hand to several projects there still remained a lack of meaning in his life. The word “project” has negative overtones. When one begins, the “project” seems to take on a personality of its own. It looms over you waiting to be acted upon. The mere word, “project” connotes work, stress, impersonal involvement, time factors, and material acquisition.  These negative aspects should help us to recognize that “projects” should be confined merely to non-personal encounters. At no time should personal contacts be relegated to any form of person-to-person project status. No person should have to suffer the denigration of being perceived as a project. To do so devalues the person so as to negate his worth. We, who detest being treated as worthless oftentimes, inflict others with that very thing. It makes us feel comfortable and secure when people and things are confined to equally shaped boxes. Things may belong in boxes. People do not! The churches’ job is to teach us how to see people as Christ sees them and things for what they are—things. Looking at the Gospels, we see Jesus in His personal encounters. Notice He did not build hospitals to contain the sick. He personally took time with them—even with those who were considered beyond hope. Jesus spent a lot of time with those thought of as hopeless. Chances are, Jewish society had had a series of “projects” designed to “help” some of these less fortunate, but because Jesus treated them as people instead of projects, He could actually have an impact. Jesus never asked people to be someone other than who they were, yet the impact of Jesus’ life on His followers served to rub off the rough places in the individual’s personality. Peter was still Peter at Pentecost, but his impetuousness had been refined into boldness, Paul’s earnestness for Judaism was turned into a driving force for Christ and the Christian Church. John’s vindictiveness was so transformed that he is now considered the apostle of love. By refining the negative qualities out of a personality the positive qualities are purified just as the value of a precious metal is increased as the degree of impurity is decreased.

            How many times have I viewed my Christian life as a series of projects to complete? Do I “work” on someone to get them to come to church, to do what I perceive as right, or even to accept salvation only to go on to my next “project” when the goal has been met? Why can’t we merely accept and love people without expecting them to perform for us? Perhaps Jesus’ success with the downtrodden was greatly influenced by the fact His love was given without enslavement. Jesus is not interested in creating clones on the outside and a rebel on the inside, what He wants to create is an inner transformation whose light would be expressed outwardly. We as people need to keep foremost the Biblical admonition to, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.  If you don’t want to be treated like someone’s project, don’t treat others that way.