When life feels meaningless
The book of Ecclesiastes is enigmatic. It’s puzzling. It’s puzzling because it tells us that much of life is vanity, chasing after the wind. It says this from the second verse of the book: “‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 1:2 NIV). But God’s providence tells us that everything in life is meaningful. So, what gives? The avalanche of scriptural evidence to prove that nothing is random, nothing is without purpose, nothing is pointless, and nothing is meaningless is truly overwhelming. My question is regarding Ecclesiastes. If providence proves that nothing is random or meaningless, why does Ecclesiastes repeatedly say just about everything in the drama of human life is meaningless? How do you reconcile this?” I suspect that the author of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher (Qohelet in Hebrew) intended it to be complex and perplexing, precisely because, as we look at the world that he was looking at, it is a per...