Vultures or Hummingbirds?

A young man packed his bags, preparing to leave home. As he headed out the door, he said to his father, “Pops, I’m looking for adventure, excitement, and beautiful women. And don’t try to stop me!”

The father thought for a moment, then said, “Who wants to stop you? I’m going with you!”

Many people in our society are bored. They mope around, fantasizing about some secret joy that lies out there somewhere. The ironic thing about seeking such pleasure, however, is how little joy it really brings.  In fact, those who seek it hardest are often among the unhappiest of people.

If you want an example of this, turn to the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes. Solomon, a man celebrated for his wisdom, tells of his search to find happiness.  The first words we encounter when we open his book are these: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

Solomon was the wisest man of his time and yet he could not make sense of his life. He was not a happy man, though he sought diligently for happiness.

First he thought the road to happiness would be found in intellectual pursuits. And who could argue with that? There is a certain nobility in seeking knowledge. We salute people who are the brightest in their field. But that doesn’t mean they are happy, that they are content. Certainly Solomon was not. He writes: “I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me . . . but I learned that this . . .  is [only] a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.” That’s interesting, don’t you think? The more knowledge, the more grief. Perhaps ignorance is bliss.

When knowledge and wisdom did not bring him any happiness, Solomon followed an entirely different path – sensual pleasure. He said to himself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. “Laughter,” he says cynically, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?”

Then he tried the path of alcohol. “I tried cheering myself with wine . . .” he writes. But this also produced frustration, as he notes in Proverbs: “Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.”

But how can that be? All the young people in the beer commercials look so happy! Dilly dilly, right? But alcohol didn’t do it for King Solomon. Then he turned to more constructive activities.  He says: “I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.” Still Solomon did not find the satisfaction for which his heart hungered.

From that Solomon turned to the accumulation of wealth: “I bought male and female slaves . . . I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces . . .” Still he did not find what he was seeking.

Then he tried sex: “I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well – the delights of a man’s heart.” A thousand wives and concubines still left him unfulfilled – but probably exhausted.

Solomon had everything that life in his time could offer. And he counted it all vanity. Yet many people today are chasing happiness in a similar fashion – knowledge, alcohol, sensual pleasure, work, accumulation of wealth, sex.

“Who wants to stop you?” said the father of the young man leaving home. “I’m going with you!”

But the prophet Joel tells the people of Israel to be “glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things . . . praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.”  In other words, give thanks to God for all the things he has done for us.

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, writes, “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Can you imagine a more wholesome approach to life than the one Paul pictures for us here? I love watching musicians who love what they are doing. I love watching our children when they sing a song of faith here at church. Paul is describing people who are joyfully singing from their hearts. Why? It is because they are filled with a sense of gratitude for all the blessings of God.

It may sound trite, but the happiest people I know are people who are filled with gratitude. It doesn’t mean they are materially blessed, or their health is exceptional or that their children are straight ‘A’ students and captains of the football team. It simply means that they have learned to count the blessings they do have and have learned to say, “Thank you.”

1. K. Chesterton once wrote: “The test of all happiness is gratitude.” And he’s right. Now let’s go back to Solomon who experienced every earthly pleasure, yet something was missing from his life. He was a miserable man. Have you guessed what it was that was missing from his life? He had never learned to say, “Thank you.” Even though he had a mountain of what other people would count as blessings, he didn’t have what he really needed most – a grateful heart.

Paul advises, “Be very careful, then, how you live – and be filled with the Spirit, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything.”

It’s like the story of the man who goes to his rabbi and complains, “Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?”

The rabbi answers, “Take your goat into the room with you.” The man is incredulous, but the rabbi insists. “Do as I say and come back in a week.” A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than before. “We cannot stand it,” he tells the rabbi. “The goat is filthy.”

The rabbi then tells him, “Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week.” A radiant man returns to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, “Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat – only the nine of us.”

It’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it? We can be grouchy or we can be grateful. We can get bitter or we can get better. We can live as fools or we can seek wisdom. We can fill ourselves with wine or we can be sober learning what the Lord’s will is for us. What are you looking for in life? Whatever it is, I am sure you will find it.

It’s like two birds that fly over our nation’s deserts: One is the hummingbird and the other is the vulture. The vultures roam the desert and they find the rotting meat because that is what they look for. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. The vultures live on what was. They live on the past. They fill themselves with what is dead and gone. But hummingbirds live on what is. They seek new life. They fill themselves with freshness and life.

That is the essence of Paul’s teaching: In life, there are two birds. The one bird looks for foolishness and stupidity, the other looks for wisdom. The vultures seek to fill themselves with the rotting flesh of drunkenness and debauchery, the hummingbird sobriety, freshness, and the Spirit. In the desert of this world you have your scavengers who are angry and ungrateful, but you also have those who hum a grateful hymn of thanksgiving.

Are you a vulture? Or a hummingbird?