"Vanity, vanity, all is vanity," a Reflection on Ecclesiastes 1:12-14

A wise ruler is looking back over the task he had set for himself--to study and to probe with wisdom all that happens under the sun. He concludes that all the effort we expend is pretty useless--that we might as well have spent our time chasing the wind.

It's pretty disconcerting to some people to find the writings of Ecclesiastes in our Bible. We may be more accustomed to reading passages about hope and reward rather than this rather pessimistic collection. Much of it challenges much of what is written in the rest of the Bible. It's not pious. Well, sometimes some of us are in situations that aren't very good. Our troubles may or may not have been our fault, but we are in trouble, anyway. At those times, we can find ourselves reflected in the writings of Ecclesiastes. We aren't the first to know futility. Being in pain does not disallow us from being in God's family.

Lectio Divina: Psalm 49:6-7