Text: Ecclesiastes 5:1-20
“For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.” —Ecclesiastes 5:20
Hollywood celebrity Jim Carrey once said,
“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
These words sound a lot like the reflections found in one of the wisdom books of the Bible.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon gives musings about the “vanity” of life “under the sun.” He writes about feelings of emptiness over the “meaninglessness” of one’s work, disappointment in striving for greatness, the futility of material wealth, loneliness, absorption with self-indulgence, envying others, and lamenting social injustices. He appears to write with a pen of regret, that many of his pursuits seemed like a “chasing after the wind.” Maybe you can relate to this tension.
Then we come to a little gem in the fifth chapter, verses 18-20, where it seems this ancient king found some good news to his dilemma regarding such vanity—like discovering a hidden treasure on an island you’ve been trapped on for years and didn’t realize what was under the ground beneath you. He prescribed to his readers what is “good and fitting” as a remedy to these many disappointments. He uses words like “finding enjoyment,” the “power to enjoy,” and “rejoicing” as a “gift” of God. Then he sums it all up by describing the spiritual condition of the person who taps into this Treasure Island secret:
“For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.” (Ecclesiastes 5:20)
According to the wisest man who ever lived, the secret to life—or that treasure which so many have overlooked—is about enjoying God’s presence in the everyday stuff of life. One translation says, “God will keep you so happy that you won’t have time to worry about each day.” This isn’t the fabricated rhetoric of some pretentious name-it-claim-it prosperity preacher, but the wordsmith of the wisest of the wise. Another translation says, “God keeps him preoccupied with the joy he derives from his activity.” Notice the joy is in the activity itself, not the preferred outcome of the activity.
If you feel as if lately your life has been drab with the activity, disappointed with outcomes, or frustrated and depressed in the process, perhaps there is a precious gem you can unearth in Ecclesiastes 5—the treasure of enjoying God in this moment. When was the last time you found yourself simply enjoying friendship with God, no strings attached? When was the last time you were in prayer simply because you wanted to be in His presence instead of needing something from Him?
What might it produce in your soul to enjoy God’s fellowship in your present activity with no brooding over past experiences or fretting over future outcomes? What if the real secret to life was realizing that the meaninglessness, or “vanity of life,” is not so much about the stuff of life itself as it is about doing the stuff of life apart from friendship with God? We are all busy people, but what if we found ourselves busy enjoying God in the very heart of the activity instead of worrying about the satisfaction that may, or may not, come as a result of the activity. Think about that as you seek to abide in Him this week.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, what if our soul was desperate for friendship with you like our lungs are dependent on our next breath? To do the stuff of life together with you is what you have always longed for in your children. Teach us how to do life enjoying this treasure of knowing you, and being known by you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion:
- What is your most treasured possession?
- Why do most people want more money than they already have?
- According to Solomon, what is good and proper for a person to do? (Ecclesiastes 5:18) What sort of experience did Solomon describe as a gift from God? (v. 19)
- What do you think it means to accept one’s lot in life?
- What ways can you look for friendship and fellowship with God in the daily stuff of life? How might you cultivate that enjoyment?
