What Does It Matter Anyway?

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I wrote this song the other week from the book of Ecclesiastes.  It's called "All is Vanity" and that's pretty much the subject of the whole song (and the whole book of Ecclesiastes!).

Which got me to thinking...

Throughout time and history, billions of songs have been written and sung.  99.999% of them die away quickly and many are never even heard by a wider audience than.... like... the person's mom.

Plus, there are so many great songs out there already.  Songs that move you, songs that make you dance, songs that make you laugh. It's like we have all the songs we'll ever need covering every topic you could dream up.  As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun.

So, why write another song?  Who really needs another song when we have bazillions to choose from already?  Who needs another everyday songwriter, yet another voice?  Is it all, to quote Solomon again, just "striving after wind?"  Is it all "vanity of vanities" and meaningless?

I've been asking myself these questions lately and, to be honest, have been pretty discouraged.  In the last week or so, I've felt my creative energy drain away - maybe it's all the work we're doing on the house, maybe it's writer's block, or maybe it's just these questions getting to me?

Maybe it's a combination of those things, but here's the TRUTH that I'm trying to preach to myself:

As a Christian, I don't work and toil so that I can write the next great, lasting song.  I don't write to gain fame or so that people will know my name.  So why do I write?  And why do I sing?

It is not gain significance under the sun.  

For I have already gained great significance in Him.
Even more, He infuses everything under the sun with significance.

And so I write.
And so I sing.

To chase my own glory would be like chasing the wind.

I would come up empty every time.

But in His love, He has chased me.

And so I write.
And so I sing.

Why do you write, sing, blog, paint, mother, cook, work, design, study?  What does it matter anyway?