Read Ecclesiastes 1:9–11
Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something
new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
Ecclesiastes 1:10
A young man approached me at a conference and asked if he could
share some new ideas for youth ministry. He was very enthusiastic as
he outlined his program, but the longer I listened, the more familiar
his ideas became. I encouraged him to put his ideas into practice but
then told him that we had done all of those things in Youth for Christ
before he was born and that YFC workers were still doing them. He
was a bit stunned to discover that there was indeed “nothing new
under the sun” (v. 9).
Solomon wrote, of course, about the basic principles of life and
not about methods. As the familiar couplet puts it: “Methods are
many, principles are few / methods always change, principles never
do.” The ancient thinkers knew this truth. The Stoic philosopher
Marcus Aurelius wrote, “They that come after us will see nothing new,
and they who went before us saw nothing more than we have seen.”
The only people who really think they have seen something new are
those whose experience is limited or whose vision can’t penetrate
beneath the surface of things.
Something to Ponder
What are some of the principles you have held throughout your life
that are identical to those of your parents and preceding generations?