Well, welcome back again to another podcast of Struggling Well, which happens to be the final podcast of 20 25. This is going to air on New Year's Eve. And so, we hope you are having a safe celebration of bringing in 2026. And I don't know what 2026 is going to look like for you. I don't know what it's going to look like for us. but I do know that God's going to show up and be there. and we're bringing in a voice that you've heard before, but it's been a while. of our producer, Tim Briggs, who also pastors a church, and he's recently been doing a series out of the book of Ecclesiastes. And one verse in particular that Tim has been struck by that I think is a great verse as we turn the calendar from 2025 to 2026 is Ecclesiastes 4:6. So I'm going to ask Tim to come in at this point.
Well, thank you for having me as always. Always an honor to appear on the podcast. we just finished a series in the book of Ecclesiastes and it is a rich book. It's a hard book I think. One of the commentaries I was studying in preparation for Ecclesiastes said, "There may be no more difficult book in the Bible to understand."
Oh, yeah.
Than Ecclesiastes. And I thought to myself, why did I do this to myself? Why did I pick this one? but it was a it was a rich series for me personally, I hope, for our congregation. There was one verse in particular that has stuck with me in a good way, maybe haunted me in a good way, which is Ecclesiastes 4 verse 6, which in the ESV says, "Better is a handful of quietness than two handfuls full of toil and a striving after wind." And when I preached that, I had to wrestle with what is that saying and what is that saying in relation to the rest of Ecclesiastes? And I think the sense of that verse is better as one handful of quietness, one handful of rest. rest of contentment, then two handfuls of chasing after meaningless things.
And as you read Ecclesiastes, there are these there are these beautiful moments in which the preacher is saying, enjoy life, eat, drink, and be merry like Gus is as he's drinking his water behind us right now.
Yeah. Loudly.
but there are these beautiful ordinary moments in life. Enjoy them. but much of life will feel a little empty and there's a lot of tension in the book and so here's this verse better is one handful of quiet than two handfuls of striving and I get that but it also made me wrestle with well why not two handfuls of quiet and two handfuls of rest that sounds even better
yeah
than one handful and so there's a tension there and I think that The picture, the image that we're given is we embrace the good things that come our way, the blessings of the Lord. We thank him for those, but there will always be a sense in which we will have one hand open of mystery and discontent and pain and suffering. And it is a question of what will we do with that open hand? Will we raise that in anger toward the Lord? Will we raise it in worship toward him? And so I'm curious for you all. You hear this verse, how does that make you think? And what sort of things are you wrestling with?
I think for me the handful of quietness is that is such a powerful textured phrase. is that similar to be still and know that I'm God? Is that connected in some way? the quietness for me is when I hear from the Lord the most. but I but what really strikes me is the chasing the wind. And you know, we're coming up we're New Year's Eve, okay? And so people, not everyone, but a lot of people make resolutions on New Year's Eve. And I think about the things that we resolve we're going to do that we're going to chase after. And most of them are such temporal things. And do we chase Do I chase after God in the same way? I mean, chasing after the wind, think about it. You can never catch it. Never catch it.
And so, what am I chasing after? That's going to sit and linger with me.
how about you, babe?
Yeah. And for me, it's the idea of what we toil at. and that speaks to me to what we work at. And again, as we head into a new year, I'm thinking, how many people will come into this year toiling and working hard and there's nothing wrong with hard work, but am I pursuing something that like you said, Suzi, is temporal and doesn't have any lasting quality to it. And can I learn to be quiet? it's for me it's as simple as I don't like quiet. I don't like silence. And so I fill anything I can with noise. I can do that when I'm driving in a car. I can do that when I'm sitting in my study here at home. I can fill my days with noise and I don't necessarily like quietness. And I don't know why that is except that I think I'm missing God when I approach it as the preacher in Ecclesiastes says as I'm toiling after two hands full of toil
and striving.
Not partially. I'm fully in. I'm bought in. and yet I don't know if I'm bought in with the quietness and being content. That was the word you used, Tim, and I really appreciate that. I don't know how often I am content.
Yeah.
Tim, what do you think? You have more, I'm sure, on your heart.
Yeah. I was just thinking as you guys were talking about Psalm 131, which says, "Oh Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me, but I have calmed and quieted my soul like a wean child with its mother, like a wean child is my soul
within me. And so there is this offer of quiet and rest and contentment with the Lord. and the picture there is you're
you're right next to him and he's right next to you.
And we can get lost in this world. chasing after so many things which just prove elusive like trying to catch wind or a breath or smoke in our hands and it never
it never works. And so I think for me for all of us who are listening as we reflect on a year that's just ended
and we look to a new year it's very natural to think about oh how did this past year go what did I like? What did I not like? What do I want to change for next year? and also in the midst of that, in light of Ecclesiastes and Psalm 131, there seems to be this invitation too of just reflecting where is the Lord in the midst of all of this? Where is he offering this one-handed quiet and rest and contentment? When am I finding elusive? And how do I make sense of all of that? It seems unfortunately the idea of busyiness has certainly entered the body of Christ and we are busy often times doing you know things that are good. We see them as good from you know being involved up to the eyeballs with stuff and you know when you're in ministry you don't really have many options but to be active actively part of that. But I think back to and if we've talked about this before, forgive me. the desert fathers and desert mothers would go to the desert and just be with God. The thought of that makes my mind spin like what in the world would that look like? what would it look like for me to take a longer period of time and we're not trying to tell you this is, you know, sell your house, move to the desert, but what would it look like? What does it look like to just be with the Lord in a in quietness and listening. You know, we're asking, we're begging God to give us information. We're begging God to tell us to answer our prayers, to tell us what to do about situations. And yet, we're so busy strategizing and organizing and hypothesizing about everything that we don't really listen. And you know, one of the things about listening to someone is if Tim and I are in a conversation, when I'm talking, he listening and vice versa. That's what we need in our relationship with the Lord. So, as we look to a new year, we all have this hope like maybe this year my quiet time will be better or maybe I'll lose that 10 pounds of ugly fat or I'll do whatever it is. We have these desires, but is there a desire? Because God certainly placed it in our heart to desire him more deeply and fully and to be with him in a more regular way and enjoy his presence.
Yeah. So, as we head into this new year, our challenge for us, the three of us sitting here, and our challenge for you is that we look at the busyiness and activity of our life. And is there something that we're allowing for that we can speak in that lets God speak into the mystery of life and we're quiet to hear him long enough to that we don't it's not all about what we go after with two hands.
Thank you. so much for tuning in this past year. It means so much to us and we really do want to hear if you listen or if you've shared it with somebody. It really encourages us. And we would ask also that you would pray for us that as this podcast continues that we will be sensitive to what God's message is, not our own agenda, but what his message is.
Have a great year. We'll see you in 2026.