All Is Vanity?

A Sobering & Surprising View of Reality

“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”

The phrase reads more like a tweet from a contemplative sophomore philosophy major at a University than the musings of the wisest human that has ever walked the earth — but these are none other than the words of King Solomon, penned in the book of Ecclesiastes — and contrary to first glance, they are designed to encourage us in how to live a good life.

When we read the word “vanity” we often think of meaningless or futile, and rightfully so. It is what the word is often translated in our modern day and it can be read into much of what Solomon is getting at (life and toil as meaningless apart from a life connected to God) — but this is not the full range of its meaning. Can life feel meaningless at times? Of course it can — and more than feel, it can seem that it is from our limited and often skewed vantage point. But there is something else Solomon wants us to learn about life…

Vanity, Vanity… Wait, What?

People have come up with all kinds of ways to describe life: A gift. An adventure. A random accident. A journey. A miracle. A wild ride. An unfortunate series of events. 😉

And what does the wisest man in the world have to say about it?

Vanity. Heḇel in the Hebrew.
Literally translated vapor or breath.

Life is a mist.
Life is a breath.
Huh?

A breath is brief and fleeting. It comes and goes. It’s here and then gone. One moment it starts, the next moment it ends. Solomon wants you to slow down to understand that your life is like this. It’s what parents say when their kids grow older— “you blink and they are all grown up.” It’s the common refrain among people who have reached their senior years — “it all went by so fast.” It’s not just our sense of time. Life, against the backdrop of history, and certainly against eternity, is a mist — and that reality should alter how you look at it and handle it.

But that’s not the complete image…

A vapor or breath is something you can see and touch but never actually grab a hold of. It eludes us. The moment we close our fist around it, it slips through our fingers. Solomon is saying that life is like “striving after the wind.” We can toil and expend all our energy trying to grasp it, but there is a mystery to our daily existence. We are not able to comprehend why things happen the way they do; why some live long and some live briefly, why righteous people suffer and wicked people prosper, why God does what He does, why some things work out and some things don’t, etc. (see Ecclesiastes 8:16-17).

Life is short.
Life is an enigma.
It’s all a chasing of the wind.

The Hidden Gift

This may sound like bad news to a modern audience but this is the kind of wisdom we need — the kind of perspective that I am being refreshed by.

In a recent blog, I started unpacking the idea behind the latin phrase memento mori — the practice of “remembering death.” This is what Solomon is doing in the book of Ecclesiastes — holding up life’s brevity and the inevitability of death before us. His aim isn’t to sink us into despair but give us true perspective so we can live life properly now.

I am coming to understand that you can’t really appreciate and steward your life if you turn a blind eye to its fragility and brevity. The preciousness of life really becomes tangible when you realize that every moment is a miracle — every breath a gift — every day not promised. Things start to change when you open up to the sobering fact that you have no clue when your time on earth will end.

Q: What would change in how you went about your days if you truly realized that your life is a brief breath — that tomorrow is not promised or guaranteed?

Life becomes something you start to enjoy instead of master or figure out when you surrender to the reality that the way it unfolds and works is above your pay grade — a mystery you will never uncover. Life stops becoming a problem to solve or a ladder to climb and more a gift to open and savor. Maybe we find it hard to enjoy our lives because we are so busy trying to perform, achieve, level up, gain, etc.

There are three normal ways to respond to mysteries; try to solve them, be frustrated at them or come to live within them and accept them as they are. Because I trust God to be a good and sovereign Father, I don’t have to wrap my head around how all of life works out. Which means I don’t have to busy myself in this short life with things I will never come to grasp and instead receive and enjoy the things that are in front of me.

So Now What?

How does Solomon, the wisest man, say to live in light of these perspectives and realities?

His response: Obey God. Enjoy Life.

Seriously. This is the wise response to the reality of life being a mist. I love the simplicity, freedom and clarity. They are interconnected.

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (Eccles. 12:14)

“And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.” (Eccles. 8:15)

Your life is a breath.
Tomorrow is not promised.
Steward today well.
Obey your Creator.
Drink some wine.
Enjoy this world.
It’s all a gift.

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These recent blogs on this topic are less wrapped up conclusions and more ramblings and processings as I continue to meditate on this perspective. I hope it can stir up some new ways of seeing and living life for you. Thanks for following along.

Leave a comment below and let me know what this is making you think.