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Monday—April 15 • The Search for Significance What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? Ecclesiastes 1:3, nkjv
It only took Kyle 28 years to figure out that his life was dull. “My wife and I deeply love each other,” he said. “We both work, we like our work, we’re making good money, and we have every material thing we want. My relationship with the Lord is good—I’ve been a Christian for seven years. But . . . it’s all so boring.” His daily routine—waking up, making the bed, going to work, coming home, making dinner, washing dishes, cleaning the house, relaxing a little, going to bed, then getting up and doing it all over again—had him asking himself, “What’s the point?” Elliot felt the same way. After working tirelessly to become the top salesman in his
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company, he finally achieved his goal. His conclusion? “It just doesn’t satisfy,” he told me. “There is no purpose. It didn’t mean anything.” Kyle and Elliot shouldn’t feel too badly. Solomon, the wisest man other than Jesus to have ever lived, observed the same thing. “Meaningless! Meaningless! . . . Everything is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). To find true meaning, we’ve got to stop looking laterally, and start looking vertically. ALM 50 Where are the men you know looking for meaning and purpose? Have they made the same discovery Solomon made? Daily Reading: Joshua 11:1–12:24, Luke 17:11–37, Psalm 84:1–12, Proverbs 13:5–6
Tuesday—April 16 • Elusive Satisfaction “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 1:2, nkjv
Why doesn’t success satisfy? Why does failure hurt so badly? And where is God in all of this? I must confess that for 25 years, every time I read the words “all is vanity,” I assumed that Solomon was saying one thing but meant something else. “Surely there is some deeper, hidden meaning,” I thought. Guess what? To my utter amazement, after years of study, I concluded that that’s exactly what he meant! Everything is meaningless! The plot thickens. Solomon devoted himself to study all that is done under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:13). He wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do during the few days of their lives. He wanted to know what a man gains for all his toil. Ecclesiastes chronicles his experimentation with wisdom, folly, pleasure, laughter, wine, great projects, wealth accumulation, sex, and hard work. What did he observe?
“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (2:11). ALM 50 Have you ever blamed God for your failures? Talk to other men and explore the answer to this question: Where is God in all of this?
Daily Reading: Joshua 13:1–14:15, Luke 18:1–17, Psalm 85:1–13, Proverbs 13:7–8
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