Year 2, Day 336: Ecclesiastes 6

Ecclesiastes 6 is a difficult chapter for me to study.  It isn’t that the chapter is particularly bad; it is that the topic discussed is reasonably narrowly focused.  It’s also a topic that I’ve spoken on several times already in Ecclesiastes.

Enjoying Life

Clearly this chapter has much to do with a person and their wealth.  However, it really goes a bit deeper than simply wealth.  It has even more to do with enjoying life than how wealthy a person is.

If we look to the opening verses we don’t hear Solomon speaking poorly upon wealth as much as we hear Solomon speaking about how vain it is for people to not enjoy whatever God has given them.  What good is all the money in the world if a person isn’t happy?

See, that’s what makes this chapter so difficult to discuss.  If you read this chapter casually, it sounds like the author is either saying that wealth is vanity or that wealth should bring happiness.  But the author isn’t saying either of these things.  The point that Solomon is making is that regardless of our station in life, if we don’t enjoy life then life becomes a vain pursuit.

Along with this idea of enjoyment is also the idea of satisfaction.  It is one thing to enjoy life; it is another thing to be satisfied with life.  The question that we can ask ourselves is whether or not we are satisfied with God’s lot for us in life.  This is a question about which I struggle a great amount.  Of course I am satisfied with my life.  God has been incredibly gracious.  I have a loving wife, a wonderful spiritual support network, and an incredible relationship with the Father.  But how much should I think to the future?  I’d love to be a fiction writer.  I’d love to write non-fiction theology.  I’d love to be in a Christian rock band.  I’d love to participate in a Christian praise band.  I could continue on with this list pretty easily, really.

So here’s where I struggle.  Are those my desires?  Are those rooted in my own ego and my own personality?  Or are those aspects something God is leading me towards?  If they are from myself, then can I say that I am really satisfied with the role that God has asked me to play?  How much can a person look to their future and dream about what might be to come and still be satisfied with life?  For the record, I don’t think that this is an easily answered query.  Nor do I think that there is any one answer, either.  I think the answer to this query is always contextual and must be asked and answered on a moment to moment perspective.

Of course, the opposite is also not true.  Satisfaction doesn’t mean complacency, either.  I have no right to say, “I’m not going to look ahead because I’m just going to enjoy where I am now.”  What would have happened had Jesus’ own disciples taken that perspective?  Would they have been justified in saying, “I’m in a great relationship with God, I’m going to be satisfied with that and just bask in this relationship?”  No.  The disciples were indeed satisfied with their relationship with God.  But they were equally challenged by the future and talking about their relationship with God to other people.  This issue of satisfaction is an issue that runs really deeply within what it means to be human.

The last thing – and perhaps the most important perspective with respect to this entire post – is this: which one of us truly knows what is good for us while we are in the process of living it?  Do I really know which decisions will be for the best?  I can have my guesses – and sometimes those guesses are dead-on correct.  But can I really know?  Some of the events in my life that I’ve hated and absolutely resisted turn out to be the events that I would never go back and change.  Some of the events that I have looked towards with incredible anticipation are events that turn out to be flops in life.

Of course, I don’t want to go too far to the other extreme.  I’m not saying we should take whatever comes.  I’m not saying that we should be complacent about making decisions.  We have to make the best decisions we can under the circumstances in which we find ourselves.  But we need to remember to do so while knowing that many of the decisions we make will turn out as they should.  But some of those decisions will backfire.  None of us can know with absolute certainty whether something will be for our benefit or not until after the fact.  We must simply do the best we can, trust in God, and ask for forgiveness when necessary.

<><