Written for Young People

“Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” — Ecclesiastes 1:2 (KJV)

Here is something most people don’t know about one of the most famous Christian books ever written: it was written for young people.

Its author, Thomas Hemerken, was born around 1380 in Kempen, a town in what is now Germany. That is why we know him as Thomas à Kempis: Thomas from Kempen. His parents were working people. At about twelve or thirteen he followed his older brother to a famous school in Deventer, in the Netherlands, where a group called the Brethren of the Common Life taught a plain, practical faith: less arguing about theology, more actually obeying Jesus.

At about nineteen he joined a poor little monastery called Mount St Agnes, and he stayed there for about seventy years. He copied books by hand, including the entire Bible. And at some point he was put in charge of the novices, the young men who had just joined and were learning how to live for God. For them, in the 1420s, he wrote short booklets of advice. Those booklets became The Imitation of Christ. After the Bible, it has probably been read more than any other Christian book in history.

So when you read Thomas, picture a wise older mentor talking to a room of young guys who had left home, were full of energy, and were sometimes full of themselves. He is blunt with them. He is also kind.

The book opens with a promise of Jesus: “He who follows Me, walks not in darkness.” Thomas’s whole idea is in that line. If you want to see clearly, imitate Jesus. Study his life. Copy him. That is what imitation means.

Then he says the sentence the whole book is famous for, borrowed from the book of Ecclesiastes:

“Vanity of vanities and all is vanity, except to love God and serve Him alone.”

Vanity here means emptiness, like a breath or a bubble. Thomas lists the bubbles people chase: money that won’t last, being admired, giving in to every craving, wanting a long life but not caring whether it is a good one. He quotes another line from Ecclesiastes: “The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing.”

You live in a world built to keep your eyes and ears busy. Thomas would not be surprised by that. He knew six hundred years ago that more seeing and hearing would never fill you up. Only God can.

One thing to do this week: notice the things you reach for when you are bored. Pick one and give it a rest for a few days. Each time you miss it, tell God: “Only you can fill me up.”