Most, if not all of us have said things like, “If I just had a better job, I’d be happy.” Or maybe, “if I only had more money,” or “if I could live in this house,” or “if I could take these types of vacations.” We often misunderstand true happiness and we seek joy in the things of this world, which were never able to bring that about.
Max Lucado writes: “There is a great dissatisfaction across the land. Hand after hand reaching out to quench thirsts and scratch itches. But the thirst lingers, the itch remains.” As one man told him, “I learned that once I had what I wanted, I found I didn’t want what I had.” The same can be said of King Solomon, who discovered that a life not centered on God is purposeless and meaningless. He was the wisest and wealthiest man of his time; he could do everything he ever dreamed of doing, he could buy anything he wanted, and he could experience any pleasure he desired. And he set out to do just that. Yet in Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, he summarizes his pursuit of anything and everything:
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
and this was the reward for all my toil.
11 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;