Ecclesiastes 7: Finding Wisdom In Affliction

Although Ecclesiastes can be pretty pessimistic, this chapter is a more upbeat one. It talks about how sorrow is turned into wisdom – and why the wise know the value of affliction.

Man, I just love bright green things. LOL

So, today I was reading from Ecclesiastes 7, and if you’ve read Ecclesiastes, you can definitely pick up on the pessimistic tune after a while. But really, that’s just the result of being honest about life without God. Cuz let’s face it: Life without God sucks. Like, really sucks. There’s no justice or goodness, nothing that lasts, nothing that’s really worthwhile. It’s all, as he describes it, “vanity.”

So, in trying out the advice from church leaders, I decided to take a look at this new chapter with the goal of finding optimism. And to my surprise, there was a lot here. You wouldn’t get that first impression tho, I imagine. I mean, just look at the second verse:

“It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.” (Ecclesiastes 7:2)

So it’s better to suffer than to be happy? And happiness is never a good thing, but rather “the end of all men?” Talk about a letdown! But then I realized that can’t be the core message. Heavenly Father wants us to have joy in this life. Heck, just yesterday, I wrote about how God blesses us to enjoy our labors in life, even if they’re technically pointless in the grand scheme of things. He values our happiness very deeply, because he loves us. So, even if the chapter can be taken in a pessimistic way, that can’t be the real message. This is holy scripture, after all, given to us for our learning and benefit. Making us feel depressed about how much life sucks isn’t exactly keeping with that purpose.