LIFE. The American Dream is summed up in the Declaration of Independence in one powerful sentence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These cascading phrases are profoundly interrelated. How can you pursue happiness if you don't have freedom? How can you have freedom if you don't have the right to life in the first place?
As we've poured over Ecclesiastes this fall, one cannot help but realize what an amazing opportunity (and gift) LIFE truly is. When I was young, I spent great deal of time around older people. I'd hang out with the minister and his wife--I'm sure they wanted me to go away, but they were always so gracious. I worked for old farmers during the summer. I had a paper route and spoke daily with retirees and elderly customers. From my earliest memory, a chorus of voices (and not always Christian) urged me not to squander my life. “Jon… how will you spend your life?” We only have one life to live on this earth. Your life is precious, unique, it's an extraordinary gift.
Because life is a precious gift, we should want to our lives to be as filled with meaning—as MEANING FULL—as possible. We should be eager to abandon those patterns of life that steal away life, that prove to be futile, a “chasing after the wind.” And then we should want to commend those most meaning-full endeavors and patterns of life to others. If we’d have the patience to wade through all his teachings—this is what Solomon is doing. He's commending a meaning filled way of life to us.
Solomon says, “the living know they will die.” We don't need to run from that simple fact. The fact of life and death sobers us up fast and causes us to weigh things more carefully. A verse on life that most struck me is Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.”
We have the opportunity to do something truly great with this gift that is our life. People often have a bucket list of pleasures and experiences they want to enjoy before they die. But there are so many things we can do on earth that can also matter for eternity. It's okay to have an earthly bucket list, but why not also a Kingdom bucket list? What great things can you we for God's glory?
This past year we lost two Schnauzers. Yes it’s harder to lose people in our lives, but it’s also hard to lose pets. They are like family. I didn't sit around very long moping. We said goodbye to Rudy and Maddie—but then we got a couple more. Their names are Roarie and Haddie. Roarie is supposed to roar with the Bears, but he just roars alone. And Haddie—well every one of Lara's dog’s names has to rhyme. Haddie, Maddie, Addie. These new dogs don't sleep. They’re ready to start each day at 4 a.m. We have to put a blanket over their cage at night, they are so over-stimulated by life. I think that is how Solomon felt about life. Life is a gift, get after it.
LIBERTY. A second major theme, implied throughout Ecclesiastes, is that of Freedom and Liberty. Solomon has life… and he is hell bent on exercising his “freedom." When God created Adam and Eve, and placed them in the garden, they were truly free to eat, drink, and do anything they wanted. The freedom God gives us isn't “fake” freedom. Neither is God a helicopter God. God doesn't swoop in to rescue Adam and Eve from their decisions in life. Neither is God a grand puppet master—yanking back our hands or feet or tongue whenever were about to transgress him.
…Adam and Eve were free to listen to Satan, they were free to eat from any tree in the garden, indeed, free to sin! Cain was free to offer whatever sacrifice he chose, he was also free to murder Abel. In Genesis, Lamech was free to live a life of violence and vengeance. The people of Noah's day were free to only chose evil all the time. That you can die slow or die fast, through the poor exercise of freedom is proof that you are “truly” free, and not just “fake” free. That one person can exercise their will to the harm (even death) of another person, is proof we are fully free. Laws are there to guide, restrain. But were essentially free to live lawlessly.
Solomon flexes his freedoms across the span of Ecclesiastes. He sets about straightening what God has made crooked and counting what God's ordained to be uncountable. Solomon applies his mind to all wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly. He tests the limits of pleasure, of laughter, of the pull of much wine. In Ecclesiastes 2:10 he says, “All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. . .” He amasses vineyards, servants, gold and silver, wives and concubines. He amasses entertainers for on-demand entertainment--singers, dancers, musicians, and poets (we have apps for that). He became the workaholic; he became the save-aholic. He became the couch potato—folding his hands over his chest, resting, not lifting a finger, turning on his bed like a door turns on its hinges. He indulges the whims of power and political life. He lets his desires roam far and wide.
You know what Ecclesiastes feels a lot like? Solomon feels like someone chasing the American Dream. The American Dream is that we take our life, and take our freedoms, and we chase hard after happiness. I think a large point in Ecclesiastes is that there are two ways you can go about pursuing happiness.
Now really quick, let me say this. It's interesting that our founders had the insight to “qualify" our third inalienable right. We have the right to life—I think that's universal, and should be without exception—a life should be allowed to blossom from the womb. As we've seen, we have true freedom (not fake freedom) to live however we want. Whether we like it or not, we have freedom with all its risks, responsibilities, dangers, even consequences, even threat of death.
But with our freedom we’re only guaranteed the “pursuit" of happiness. Solomon's word for happiness is enjoyment. He repeatedly says that it’s a great good that a person “enjoy” life. But at issue is how do we achieve that goal?
In Ecclesiastes 1:8 Solomon makes a keen observation about human nature, and the power of desire. He says, “All things are wearisome, more than anyone can say. The eye is not satisfied by seeing or the ear filled with hearing.” Similarly, in Ecclesiastes 6:7 he says, “All of a person’s labor is for his stomach, yet the appetite is never satisfied.” The pursuit of happiness can be a wild goose chase! Or as Solomon says, the pursuit of happiness can be a “chasing after the wind.” It can be a futile effort. Happiness can be a kind of destination to which one never arrives. But why?
When Solomon turned his desires away from God, his desires led him astray. His desires sent him “chasing after the wind.” Is there any greater word picture for frustration—for unhappiness—than chasing after the wind? Solomon's learned (through much toil and frustration)… that if the ear is not most captivated by the voice of God… if the eye is not captivated by the glory of God… if our stomach doesn't most hunger and thirst for righteousness… it will be captivated by most everything else.
I think one of the most profound chapters in the whole Bible is Philippians 3, where Paul talks about how knowing Christ is the single most meaning-filled, joy-giving, purpose and goal we can have in life. In Philippians 3:10 he says, “My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection. . .” Paul's goal is to also become like Christ. This holy ambition fills his life with pure joy.
But what happens when this holy ambition is usurped by other ambitions? Philippians 3:18-21 describes two diametrically opposed patterns of living! There is life centered on Christ; but also, the life centered on the flesh and earthly. “For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things. 20 Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.”
With one pattern of life, grief increases, unhappiness increases, joy decreases, one grows weary in futile pursuit. Listen to how Solomon frames this in Ecclesiastes 2:24-26, “There is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand, 25 because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from him? 26 For to the person who is pleasing in his sight, he gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and accumulating in order to give to the one who is pleasing in God’s sight. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.” For the one who put God in the center of his life he finds balance, abundance, satisfaction; but the other becomes a miserable gatherer who never gathers enough. And even what he does gather, it lost. If you don’t even have God, you never have enough. Solomon says this way of life is futile and like a chasing of the wind.
Again, in Ecclesiastes 3:12-14 Solomon says, “I know that there is nothing better for [people] than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. 13 It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts. [DO YOU HEAR THAT???] 14 I know that everything God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of him.” You heard the first part; did you hear the second part? It’s not just that you'd pursue enjoyment and happiness as an end in or of itself. It's that you'd pursue enjoyment and happiness “in awe of God"… in a spirit of worship, reverence, and fear.
[ROMANS 1:18ff illustrates that when you jettison worship, pursuit of “happiness” becomes nothing more than utter futility, chasing after the wind, a vain pursuit in which sin gives way to greater sin, stirring the wrath of God…]
Ecclesiastes 11:9-10, “Rejoice, young person, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. And walk in the ways of your heart and in the desire of your eyes; but know that for all of these things God will bring you to judgment. 10 Remove sorrow from your heart, and put away pain from your flesh, because youth and the prime of life are fleeting.”