An Ecclesiastes Kind of Feeling

All is vanity.

-Ecclesiastes 1:2

I sometimes wonder if folks who hold the attitude that the Bible is the instruction manual and rule book for human existence have ever actually read Ecclesiastes.  Perhaps it's some flaw in my nature, but I find that I have a lot of Quoheleth days.  Quoheleth is a transliteration of the Hebrew word that is used for the author of Ecclesiastes, it means preacher or teacher, depending on your emphasis.

Here's what a Quoheleth day feels like: you wake up in the morning and you realize that you are probably going to do the same sort of things you always do.  You might accomplish some things, and you might leave things undone, but ultimately it's not really going to matter, because the universe is a really big place, and really what can you do but simply try and handle what's right in front of your nose.  All things considered, it's better to do good than evil, but, if we're honest, we probably will get up to a little of both, and somehow, someway we're going to have to answer for that reality.

God will judge, but don't expect him to play favorites.  God's love seems to extend to everyone equally, and it doesn't really rescue us from any of our own nonsense until all is said and done and we're back to being dirt in the ground.

Knowing that fact doesn't make you powerful, it just gives you the only perspective that makes any sense, and so it's a good place to start.

Any time I hear someone claim that religion is crutch or for the weak minded, I know that they have not read Ecclesiastes carefully enough.  Anytime I hear Christians use happy little platitudes like: "If God brings you to it, He'll bring you through it," or other such bulletin board nonsense, I suspect that they have not wrestled with the notion that, "all is vanity."

There are very few three word sentences that pack such a punch.  "All," everything, life, death, love, hate, hope, despair, faith, doubt, "all," is vanity.  Vanity is empty and self absorbed.  Vanity is thinking that the universe revolves around your life.  Vanity is being too impressed with your own intelligence, talent or beauty.  Vanity is thinking that somehow anything that you do matters in the least.  It's all just "chasing after the wind."

It's startling to me that a person who believes such things, also believes there is a God who is somehow active in all this futility.

But he does, in fact, it seems to be the only thing that matters even one little bit.

The funny thing is that this Quoheleth, far from being in bondage to the crushing emptiness of nihilism seems remarkably free to engage life on some fairly admirable terms.  He is set loose in a world without false boundaries.  It is a world where suffering is expected, but so is joy.  It is a world where there is no need to get terribly twisted about all the things that happen under the sun.  They've happened before, they'll happen again... do what you can to be a person who enjoys life, and who lives in peace with others.

How does he get there?

He does somehow stay connected to the idea: even though all is vanity, we have a purpose.  It may be small, it may not always rise up on eagle's wings, but it's always there, something always matters, just usually not the thing that we think.

How does one start with the notion that "all is vanity," and end with the prescription that the really important thing is to just take life as it comes and try to make the best of it?

Because you really don't have any other options.