Day 57: Meaningless
1 The words of the Teacher,a]”>[a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
3 What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 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.
11 No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
Have you ever paused to ask yourself why you do what you do? Do you do it because you hope to please others? Maybe make your parents happy?
Have you ever asked yourself why you want what you want? If you want to be a famous singer or actor do you want it for the money? Or do you want it for the way people look at you and admire you? It’s important to understand why we want what we want. But it’s also important to realize that a lot of what we say we want isn’t going to make us happy once we get it.
When Solomon reflects in the book of Ecclesiastes about the meaninglessness of life he is getting to the truth I’m hoping we’ll see in this post. When you work to get rich but realize you can’t take it with you then what is the purpose of your pursuit? Solomon points out that the eye never has enough of seeing. Will another suit make you happy? Will a bigger house make you satisfied? Many movies and tales illustrate how the greed to have more can destroy us. Perhaps what will help us to live a balanced, healthy life is understanding that we find meaning in pursuit.
When we have a goal that isn’t easy to achieve but meaningful to us we garner a sense of purpose. And while we have this goal we can motivate ourselves because we have committed ourselves and we want to be true to ourselves. When we get the goal we initially rejoice but then need a new goal or we will fall into a sense of despair.
If we no longer think we can reach our goal or that it is important we can also become depressed and uninspired. It seems that we were created with a design that requires a worthwhile focus to keep us happy.
So my take away from Solomon’s wisdom is that a lot of what I’ve been stressing about will be gone soon so I shouldn’t worry and kill myself over attain it. And a lot of the fame I seek will not be remembered by the next generation. So it would be better for me to focus on making meaningful relationships with those in my community.
Today, I realize that I’ve been distracted by things that won’t matter very long. I choose rather to see things from Our Father’s perspective and pursue what is important to Him and a blessing to those He has allowed me to interface with.
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