The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/ecclesiastes/2.htm

As I said yesterday, I’m not smart enough to fully understand this book. Solomon proceeds to tell us that everything we do is in vain, but turns around and tells us when should enjoy life while we’re here, eating, drinking, and being merry. I’m guessing, in my mind, that is a way to tell us to enjoy our lives, and don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t kill yourself worrying about finances, status, your job, and life’s other stresses.

Two things I want to expand on; worry enough about your job and your finances to provide for your family. When I was working, I constantly heard employees gripe about all of the hours they had to work (40) and that their work/life balance was “imbalanced”. “My family is more important than this job!”, they would say. Of course, my work was emergency services which required people to work nights, weekends, and holidays. But when they would make such a comment, my mind immediately went to “Yes, but without your job, you can’t provide for your family, and I believe having food on the table is more important than going to a little league game.” Plus, it teaches your children that life isn’t entirely about having fun, that there are responsibilities as well.

I’m not suggesting you strive so much for status or position that you work 16 hours a day, slaving at the desk while your family is home alone, but you should be concerned enough with the things that support your family. As I said yesterday, had my father not been a hard worker, I wouldn’t have been provided for as well as I was, nor would I have been raised with a good work ethic.

So, normal life is not in vain. God said be fruitful and multiply; taking responsibility for that is a given. He didn’t say, “Be fruitful, multiply, and abandoned them or let them starve.”

My second point is, and it kind of touches on yesterday, yes, our work, money, social status, all of that is in vain because in the end, we all go to the grave. But living for God isn’t in vain. We are each put here for a purpose, to fulfill God’s Will, and than task surely isn’t in vain. We are given life by our Creator, and we should make the best of it. I’m proudly pro-life, and I am often scoffed at by pro-choice people when I say, “My biggest fear about abortion is that we’ll get to Heaven and ask God why He didn’t provide a cure for cancer, and He tells us, ‘I did, I gave you the scientist that would discovered the cure, but you aborted them””. I could go on and on about abortion, but that is not what this particular post is about.

On to Ecclesiastes 3. Whenever I read this, I hear music in my head. The lyrics of a famous 60’s song was based on this chapter of Ecclesiastes. In fact, when I looked up the various videos on YouTube, some of the commenters mentioned that the lyrics were written 2,000 years ago (actually, more like 4,000. So read Ecclesiastes, then enjoy this song. (Oh, and what attracts me to a song is the tune. I’ve had many people scold me about a song I like saying the lyrics are terrible, and to be honest, I don’t have a clue to what most song lyrics are!)

As the Byrds say, “there is a time for everything under Heaven”. Yes, when we go to the graves, many things in life may have been in vain, but serving the Lord is NOT one of those things. In fact serving the Lord is the highest priority in life, over all else.