ON THE VANGUARD

MEANINGLESS
“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 2:11

There are times in life where I find myself reviewing the things I have done. This actually happens quite a bit for me. I cannot help it, I am a thinker. I have a thinking spot, a thinking position, and a mind that won’t let up. But it is normally in these times that I find myself questioning my life thus far. The main question I ponder is, “What am I doing?” Sometimes this question comes soon after I have done something majorly wrong and my eyes have been opened to my error. Other times I ponder this question before I am about to make a big decision. Still there are times when it is not a beforehand look, or a recent look, but a look a great time down the road. Regardless of when, I find myself reviewing my actions to contemplate if there was any value in what I had done. Honestly, I could tell you stories both positive and negative from my times of thinking.
Maybe Solomon and I have a little in common. Now granted I may not be the smartest man to live like he was. And truthfully, if given the choice of honor, wealth, or wisdom like Solomon was offered, I probably would have chose wealth (sad, but true). But as Solomon looked over his life near what we assume is the beginning of the end in Ecclesiastes, we see that he contemplates the futility of his life. “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (Ecc 2:11). Now wait a minute – this is the guy who had everything he wanted. In fact, because he chose wisdom, God also gave him riches and honor (I Kings 3:12-13). He had a great number of wives and concubines. He had plenty of ‘things’ and yet here he is saying that it was meaningless. The stuff people desire and work to achieve Solomon is here saying is meaningless? So then, I wonder what would be considered meaningful.
As I sit in my thinking spot and contemplate the words of Solomon here, I find myself thinking more about what I know of this former king. I am reminded that Solomon allowed his heart to be turned from God because of the influence his many women had on him. He began to travel the path of being swayed from devotion to the one true God and embracing the idol worship of other gods. So that makes me question if that is when his life moved from meaningful to meaningless. When he left God behind for the gods, is that when life began to have no real substance? I cannot help but think this true, and cannot help but be warned about this truth in my own life. I do not want to wake up one morning, suddenly feeling as though life is meaningless, only to put 2 and 2 together and figure out it was because I turned my back on God that I have now no reason for living.
We sang a song in church this past week where the words pronounced there was nothing better than God. As I stood in this moment of worship with my eyes fixed on God and digesting this truth, I began to think of the things I had put in front of God and called ‘better’. At one time I would say women, but now I see how it too only swayed me from God to a life of pride and selfishness. I might even say music as I grew up with a love for music, but see too how the allowance of just any kind of music can be tainted and still me from God. Is there anything that is really better than God? I cannot think of one thing. So if I am chasing after these things that honestly will not fulfill me, then I am chasing after meaningless stuff and life really is futile. I do not want that to be my end result. I want a meaningful life. I want God, and God alone.