It has been my observation while reading Ecclesiastes that Solomon struggled to find meaning in Life. He had the resources to explore a wide range of avenues looking for wisdom and meaning. In Ecclesiastes 2:1-3 Solomon leaps into the fray with the following observation, “I said to myself ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.’ But that also proved to be meaningless. ‘Laughter,’ I said, is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish? I tried cheering myself with wine and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.” [NIV]

Solomon was struggling, trying to put his finger on the nature of wisdom and the fullness of meaning in his life. He tried pleasure (a form of hedonism) to determine if there was something to be learned. He pursued anything he wanted, any woman, any object, any experience. Nothing was out of bounds for the king. Yet this failed. Both pleasure and laughter were unable to calm the angst in his heart as he searched for peace and meaning in life.

He filled up vessel after vessel with wine, hoping the buzz would dull the angst. As many people do, he looked for wisdom at the bottom of an empty glass. Finding none, he turned to other things, see Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 “I undertook great projects: I built houses … planted vineyards … planted all kinds of fruit trees … made reservoirs … owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem … I amassed silver and gold …. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me …. 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.” [NIV]

 So, what happened? He had achieved all we could imagine when defining success. He had money, possessions, power, prestige, and pleasure. He had it all, and he had done it all “for himself.” There was a reason he struggled to find purpose. This reason was simple – God was not part of the plan, rather Solomon was busy working on self, building for self, looking for satisfaction of self with little regard to the negative impact on others (effort and taxes of the common folk to build stuff) or benefit to anyone else but himself. 

He learns the hard way that leisure and entertainment are not valuable to anyone including himself if there is no intent or external goal associated with the effort. It is not enough to see a new thing, do a new thing, or experience a new thing; if all we are accomplishing is the receipt of something, then we are left with angst.

Giving is not just a mantra, it is central to the way we are made, the way we think, the way we find meaning in life. When we think of others before self our angst begins to dissipate. When we give to others, our angst begins to dissipate. As a man thinks – a Man is (implied in Proverbs 23:7). As the Father gave to us – we are designed to give to others. After all, we are created in his image. Giving only to self is counterproductive to who we are, why we are, how we are designed to function.

What do we do? Isaiah 43:6-7 says, “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth— everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” [NIV]

What do we do? We respond to the call!

I choose Jesus.