Open up (or click on) Ecclesiastes and your greeted with some really encouraging sub-headers: “Wisdom Is Meaningless“, “Pleasures Are Meaningless“, “Advancement Is Meaningless“, “Riches Are Meaningless“, “Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless“, “Toil is Meaningless” and just to summarize “Everything Is Meaningless“. Wow, that just makes me want to shoot myself now. Well its good I’ve spent so much time working on “stuff”. “Everything Is Meaningless” but not “Everything Is Meaningless”. Read those first two chapters and you might realized that some things are missing from the “meaningless” lists. Never once are relationships with people or God labeled as meaningless.
EveryTHING might be meaningless, it doesn’t matter how much stuff we have, how hard we worked or how cool people though we were. If all this stuff is meaningless, then the writer (probably King Solomon my Bible says) might be using contrast to tell us what really does matter, and I’m pretty sure he is. Too often we work our whole lives so we can get a Benz by the time we’re 40 or a nice house with a mini-movie-theater. When have you heard someone say “I want to have 5 great friends by the time I retire”? Friendships DO matter, they are not meaningless. “If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!” (4:11)
I want to be able to have fun, be honest and challenged by some really close people in my life. Who cares if I live in a mansion or a cardboard box, cause that doesn’t matter. They might be family or friends closer then family, but those are the things I’m going to remember on my death bed, not that a I got a 3.5% raise when I was 35 years old. Most importantly is my relationship to God. Who relocates when we do, is there when our family won’t talk to us and we can look forward to seeing after our death bed.
Remember, everyTHING is meaningless, but everyTHING doesn’t include everything. There are “things” that are so much more then “things” that do matter.
Peter:
You have whetted my appetite to re-read Eccl. I’ll do it with a lot more concentration. Will you be going to Florida to the Grandfathers final rites? My prayers will continue for you and your family. RJ