Blog 3804 – 04.22.2026
Is That All There Is?
Peggy Lee sang a song that told the story of a little girl watching her house burn down, a pre-teen girl going to the circus for the first time, a young woman experiencing her first heart break, and an older woman facing death. Each story ends with same conclusion about fire, the circus, love and life and asks the same question, “Is that all there is?” The chorus continues, “If that’s all there is, my friend, then let’s keep dancing, break out the booze, and have a ball. If that’s all, there is.”
The writer of the of the book Ecclesiastes comes to the same rather pessimistic and cynical conclusion regarding all there is to life. He writes, “All is vanity and vexation of spirit.” And concludes with a line quite similar to the chorus of the lovely if sad Miss Lee song, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” To my my mind this is just further evidence that that far from being the inerrant and holy word of God in whole and in part that I was taught the Bible is as a child that it is rather a collection of books written by men with varied and often contradicting points of view.
I reject the conclusions of today’s song and of the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes. There is more to fire, the circus, love, and life than one little girl, pre-teen, young and even old woman’s experience of them. This adventure in space and time though it has indeed has it’s disappointments and detours has had it’s moments of amazing beauty, satisfaction, and many of those detours have lead to most wonderful and best surprises of all.
I can hear George Beverly Shea singing the song, The Love of God, the first stanza of which was not found in the Bible, but scrawled on one cell wall in an insane asylum: “Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky.” George concludes his song with a different answer to the question. “Is that all there is?” He speaks the words in that commanding baritone voice, “Out there beyond the horizon, there’s more, there’s more.”
My explorer’s heart says, Amen!
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David James White
theencouragingword 