The book Ecclesiastes in the Bible is definitely one of the more complex and fascinating books to study. The things it has to say about life in general and the human condition are still just as powerful and relevant in our modern age as they were almost 3000 years ago when Ecclesiastes was first written. A favorite verse, which has helped shape the man I am today, can be found at the beginning of chapter 6. Solomon says: "I have seen another evil under the sun and it weighs heavily on men. God gives a man wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them."
Isn't that mentality so indicative of our present culture? How many countless times have we heard superstars, with everything in the world, break down and admit that even with all they've done and attained, they still haven't found meaning in life. I think of the famous Tom Brady, at the height of his career asked by an interviewer about his life, and he responded that whatever real life is, he still hadn't found it.
Hearing testimonies like that one and reading verses like the one in Ecclesiastes, it made me think about my life a lot differently at an early age. As a high schooler growing up in a big city, I wanted what everyone wanted: to grow up, have a house, a good job and make lots of money. That's just what people do. And yet, these kinds of notions kept creeping into my mind asking me "is that really all that life's about? Is the guy with the huge house and great job really all that much happier than I am?"
And the answer, I found, was no. And it makes sense. For all of the physical possessions that we have in life, we ourselves are the ones who assign meaning to them. A jet ski would really only be satisfying and meaningful to me if I was the type of person that derived satisfaction from being out on a lake or the open water of the sea, with the wind and the sun on my face. That's why your average American doesn't jet ski, apart from the fact that it's expensive, because they don't particularly find meaning in being on the open water.
So the question must be asked: If we're the ones who give meaning to the things we possess, then how could we ever expect that having lots of money and lots of things would ever provide satisfaction to our lives? It's seems pretty obvious when you look at it from that standpoint doesn't it?
But American society will never tell you that. They'll tell you that if you really want to live your life to the full, you need to have ambition, you need to strive for financial freedom and independence. But financial freedom and independence are just a means to an end, not the end itself.
Can we really not come up with a better system in this country than to get ourselves educated for 25 years, just to spend the next 30 years paying for a place to sleep, saving up enough money so that we can finally retire for a decade, or two if we're really healthy. There has to be a better way. I think that one of the initial steps is really just realizing that possessions and things can never give any satisfaction or meaning to our lives. But that's a big step, not one easily taken in our modern age. But that's why I love books like Ecclesiastes. They show us that not much has changed, even in 3000 years.
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I hope you enjoyed these thoughts from my Ecclesiastes study, and what seeking God and seeking ourselves means in this current day and age.
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