The Vanity of Life

Scripture reading: Eccl. 1:12-

Steven Bartlett, CEO of multiple companies at the age of x, wrote about the idea of time-betting. Each person, if they live to the age of 80, has about 700,000 hours of life. He thinks of each hour as a gambling chip you might find in a casino. And the shape of your life depends on what you bet your chips on.

A third of our chips, we bet on sleep. And many of our chips, we spend on things that the writer of Ecclesiastes calls “vain.”

Jokes (2:2).

Alcohol (2:3).

Art (2:4).

Nature (2:5-6).

Money and possessions (2:7-9).

Music (2:8)

Sex (2:8)

Affirmation & external validation (2:9)

Work (2:11).

Ecclesiastes 5:10–11 ESV

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?

Nehemiah 8:10 ESV

Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

C.S. Lewis: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”