Connecting Point: What are you chasing?

The desire to be “top of your game” or “top of the world” is a near-universal want. For centuries, people have aspired to great heights, achieving some of life’s “greatest” passions. Individuals like Tom Brady, Serena Williams, Usain Bolt, Oprah Winfrey, or even Henry Ford are known as individuals who sought to be better and better. In ancient times, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Alexander the Great excelled at both political and military power. We’ve been focusing on King Solomon lately, reading through Ecclesiastes, from the Old Testament.

“I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted. I said to myself, ‘Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.’ Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief,” (Ecclesiastes 1:12-18).

Solomon bravely explores the deeper meaning or purpose for living, drawing one striking conclusion; life is purposeless without God. Early in his reign as king, when given the opportunity by God to ask for anything, Solomon chooses wisdom to lead his people (cf. 1 Kings 3). Wisdom and knowledge are indeed valuable but then again apart from God or God’s principles, such pursuit leaves you empty.

Blaise Pascal, a 17th-century mathematician, and philosopher, echoes Solomon, “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself.”

I concur with both Pascal and Solomon; human intelligence alone will never find true purpose. A person can consume wisdom and knowledge but find life unbearable. One matter that is deeply personal for many includes the death of a loved one. Pursuing passions, material things and even wisdom will never be enough. Even one of the “wisest” men of all time, Solomon, discovered wisdom alone didn’t bring fulfillment. Down through the ages comes his wisdom to take stock daily and don’t chase the wind.