Better not to want the world too much

Who could envy Cain his hunger? Better to be circumspect and silent. Better not to want the world too much. Left alone with the body of his brother, Cain began to assemble the words about what Abel had done and what he had been forced to do in return. It was a long story. It took his entire lifeto tell it. And even then it wasn’t finished.How great language had to become to encompass its deft evasions and sly contradictions, its preenings and self-satisfied gloatings.Each generation makes a contribution, hoping to have got it right at last. The sun rises and sets. The leaves flutter like a million frightened hands. Confidently, we step forward and tack a few meager phrases onto the end.

Each generation makes a contribution, hoping to have got it right at last.


Hoping to have got it right at last.


I love the book of Ecclesiastes, and  I am constantly reminded that Solomon has it right when he says there is nothing new under the sun. Generation after generation, we're following the same patterns with different specifics. Struggling and striving as those before us, trying to add meaning that hasn't been added before... just to "tack a few meager phrases onto the end."


And as I speed re-read Ecclesiastes this morning, noting all the portions I have circled and identified with in the past in the exact same way I identify with them this morning, I am not apathetic or pessimistic or down-trodden or hopeless as it might sound.


How is it possible that I don't really find the refrain of Ecclesiastes "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!" hopeless? Somehow, this morning, it is not hopeless, but hope in something that is not vain, a reminder of the proper perspective of humanity, which is to remember that our lives are brief, a repetition of lives before us and without control over the lives that come after, lives that are filled with vanities, futilities, inconsistencies, and injustices. We struggle to make meaning of every aspect of our corporal lives, and, in trying to get it right, we all follow different paths, some wisdom, some riches, some work, some religion, and  in the end it is all the same. As Hamlet reflected over the skull of Yorrick, Solomon said it centuries before: "One fate befalls them both."


There is nothing new under the sun. Why then, do I search for the point as if it is something that can be discovered that hasn't been discovered before?


I think if I could just study enough... if I could just be wise enough... but the problem with the whole thing is that my perspective is rooted in the idea that I, a human, can grasp it and can get it right, and that perspective is foolishness. There is only one point: God. It's a point I can't ever understand, but that's the point. And this morning, I am rejoicing in that.

But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and the excessive devotion to books is wearing to the body. The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgement, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:12-14

And I  saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, "I know," he cannot discover. Ecclesiastes 8:17

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11