Simple Wisdom: Contemplating Life
One Year Bible (Sep. 2)
Ecclesiastes 1:1-3:22
SIMPLE WISDOM: Contemplating Life
“My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”-- Forrest Gump
In 1981, at a bus stop in Savannah Georgia, a man named Forrest Gump contemplates about his life as he sits on a bench with various strangers. This classic movie touched hearts as it embraced the main character who had an IQ of 75 and yet who had become a war hero risking his life for others.
As a child, he had been fitted with leg braces to correct a curved spine, but as an adult, he used those legs to “run like the wind”. They propelled him through life, war, running across the nation, and winning as a ping pong champion.
His legs made him fast, but his heart made him “Stand strong”. Although he had low intelligence, he had a strong emotional intelligence. His mama had filled him with wisdom and love which he shared with all.
Forrest Gump reminded us that the most important things in life are felt, not thought by great intellects and that the greatest treasure was finding the sweetness in life (like the box of chocolates) and being the love in the lives of others…
Have you stopped to contemplate life recently?
The book of Ecclesiastes helps us to do exactly that, as it is filled with life contemplations. However, it is not contemplations by a simple man with a simple life.
It is the life reflections made by a man who “had it all, saw it all, and did it all”.
His name was Solomon and he asked God for wisdom and thus became the “wisest man” to ever live. Not only was he given much wisdom, but he was also given wealth, success, peace, and the honor of building the Temple of David, his father.
The word, “Ecclesiastes” means “Preacher/Teacher” which is what Solomon uses to refer to himself. This book was written late in his life as he is looking back for the answers and meaning of life. He writes so that we may avoid some of his mistakes and share in his learnings.
Solomon says, “Everything is meaningless, completely meaningless.” (1:2)
“History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say, ‘Here is something new! But actually, it is old; nothing is ever truly new. We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in the future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.” (1:9)
Solomon then goes on to tell us the things that he has tried in his life in order to fill his emptiness…wisdom, pleasure, building beautiful homes, planting vineyards, entertainment, and hard work… You name it and he tried it!
His response was “Vanity, Vanity”... This word means, futile, pointless, aimless, empty, hollow, absurd, inconsequential, insignificant, senseless, and without eternal meaning.
This is his summary of everything “Under the Sun”, which means life on earth.
Solomon says, “The greater my WISDOM, the greater my GRIEF. To increase KNOWLEDGE only increases SORROW.” (1:18)
Notice how he relates Wisdom with Knowledge and Grief.
He actually goes so far as to say, “So I came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling… Everything is meaningless --like chasing the wind.” (2:17)
Why did Solomon write in such a skeptical and pessimistic way you may wonder?
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is a powerful passage of scripture that we have probably all heard over and over… “For everything, there is a season, a time for eerie activity under heaven… A time to be born and a time to die….A time to plant, cry, laugh, embrace, search, love…
The difficulty for Solomon lies in the season that he finds himself in as he is writing this to us… he describes it as “A Great Tragedy” in Ecc. 2:21. “Some people work wisely with knowledge and skill, then must leave the fruit of their efforts to someone who hasn’t worked for it. This too, is meaningless, a great tragedy. So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety? Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night, their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless.”
Do we truly get what King Solomon is telling us here? He had the greatest kingdom in the world and the most wisdom of any man and none of this could save him from death. The wise die just the same as the fool and the rich become poor. Everything we own will be passed on to someone that never worked for it.
One of my favorite quotes from Forrest Gump is, “I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is.”
The intellectually deficient character, Forrest Gump, certainly lacked an ounce of the knowledge of Solomon but he put his life into helping, caring, and loving others.
Simple Wisdom for contemplating life… What can you take with you into the next life?
