This Cycle is Meaningless

Scripture: I saw a youth just like this start with nothing and go from rags to riches, and I saw everyone rally to the rule of this young successor to the king. Even so, the excitement died quickly, the throngs of people soon lost interest. Can’t you see it’s only smoke? And spitting into the wind? Ecclesiastes 4:14-16

Observation: Solomon is the accepted author of Ecclesiastes, and here he talks of something he has seen ... a man go from a state of unknown to fame only for it not to last. He saw one of his own brothers go from being declared king by a large crowd, to being alone and begging for his life. To some degree, Solomon went from being declared the wisest man in the world - and standing in the newly built temple before the entire country while the very being of the Lord filled the space - to later simply going through the mundane work of ruling, and likely hearing about every complaint people have against himself. As we have all done, he likely saw people rise to power in business, only to see the business lost.

This is the way of it. Earthly success is achieved and lost in cycles. People rally to the success then slink away as it fades. The individual has their star rise, but it falls with little understanding of what changed, and popular opinion and praises rise and fall with it.

And both are meaningless. The praise and popularity of success - even rising from poverty to kingship - is meaningless. The loss of position and honor - be it as a king or business leader - is meaningless. How great of an indictment is this, then, that many people consider the achievement of professional success, and the labors and challenges they needed to overcome, to define their very lives, setting them up for feeling destroyed and lost when the cycles changes?

Application: This issue happens to so many, especially men (but increasingly women) in 'western' society. We strive for success in our field, achieve it along with acknowledgment and honor and praise from others, then it fades. We feel the ebb and flow of success. Worse, we experience the ebb and flow of popular opinion ... we think we earned honor, so therefore must have earned the later dishonor.

The wisest man of all time, educated by the most-wise Yahweh, says ... this cycle is meaningless.

So here I am, on the downward side of the cycle, and I keep trying to tell myself not to care. The lesson I am taking away today is that it is true I shouldn't care about ANY of it. I especially need to ignore the fact that success ever occurred, for that too was meaningless. And I need to not care about any of the people who responded both favorably and unfavorably as it all happened, for they were just part of the meaningless cycle.

I need to do good work now, embrace the joy the Lord gives me every day, and serve and praise the Lord in it all. In this I will find peace in my heart, and purpose in life.

Prayer: Lord, I am languishing again due to my attachment to the world. I wish to move way beyond the world, and into your purposes and joy. I will strive to do good work, honorable to myself, my family, and most importantly to you. May that be all I care about in the world, and all else may I direct to you, serving you by loving my wife and family, loving others, and declaring your praise. Amen.