Meaningless?

First off, sorry for the lack of posting, I went into November telling myself I would write a lot, but I’ve been loaded with work and sick the past couple weeks. But to cheer everyone up I have a post on Ecclesiastes, one of the few books (other than the prophets) I have not yet written about. I haven’t read Ecclesiastes for a while, but it really is a great book once you get to the heart of the meaning. It was supposedly written by King Solomon, and is sort of the “anti-proverbs” in that it lacks the upbeat messages and pithiness. The opening lines are “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” My first reaction is “wow, why do I want to read this?” It really is depressing; Solomon main message is that we wake up, work, sleep, and die and that is all there is to life. However, a closer look shows that Solomon does acknowledge God in his despair as the only source of meaning to our lives. When you take a long hard look at life, Solomon is right in his claims, without God life is meaningless; today I woke up, ate breakfast, went to school, talked to friends, took a math test, did my homework, will eat dinner, go to bed, only to do it all over again. Imagine if that was my life, if that was all there was to my existence. If I was jumping from pleasure to pleasure searching for that “one thing” only to find it doesn’t exist. There is a ton to write about Ecclesiastes in detail which I probably will do, but for now, I’m clearing its “bum rap.” While it is depressing to read the message is true, a life without God and dedicated to this world is worth nothing in the end, a life spent every minute in devotion to God is priceless.