Everything is Meaningless

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless. What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun? Ecclesiastes 1:2-3

You hustled and bustled around, toiled even beyond what you were told but at the end of the day, you do not even get a simple “thank you”. You gave your all but others do not even seem to care – like everything had no meaning at all.

You struggled years in school to get a degree and eventually establish a career but later find out that “career” is just another decorative word for work. We enjoy it at first but the enjoyment will one day come to pass – we wake up one morning and feel burned out. Just mere imagination of the daily routine in the work place would torment us.

Then we try to escape the reality of boredom by taking a drink with friends after office hours, in the hope that this will ease the stress. Yet after several glasses of wine, you get nothing but headache, the stress and boredom lingers when you get out of bed in the morning, and eventually deal with the same faces and paper works that gave you stress.

For those who realize at an early stage that life long of hard work and a “successful” career does not give life fulfillment, try to find meaning in their children and family. While it’s true that our family is where we find much joy and reward, it entails more hard work and sacrifice, and sometimes does not give much meaning after all.

We all go through this part of life when we think that nothing on earth gives meaning to life at all. Some who do not want to be as pessimistic in admitting that life is indeed meaningless try to put off fulfillment to some future endeavors: “Maybe I’ll find meaning when I get the promotion I have worked for”, “maybe I’ll find meaning when I finally find the right person to marry”, “maybe I’ll find meaning when I am able to build the mansion I have dreamed of”.

But all these are nothing more than living in a state of delusion and denial. Deep in our hearts we know fully well that fulfillment will never come by what we can achieve or by what we can acquire.

A life lived under the sun is totally meaningless and unless we start being honest with ourselves and stop trying to figure out everything for ourselves, we will always be striving in the meaningless pursuit of purpose.

All we have to do is be reminded every now and then that we are not in this world to dwell in the trivial matters of life, but to rest in the assurance that God has put eternity into our hearts and all that we do ultimately has eternal meaning and significance.