(I wrote this post to encourage my missionary colleagues--a very dedicated, hard-working group.
It occurs to me, though that almost all of what is in this post applies to many other folks that I need. In the last few months I've met and heard about a number of Sunday School teachers, youth workers, deacons, pastors and other dedicated Christian servants who either are, or are close to being burnt out. Some of them didn't know how bad off they were until after they stepped back for a while. Their self-awareness was more accurate in hindsight.
Perhaps this applies to you, or someone you love.)
Over the years, I have frequently asked myself, and sometimes others, a question that always impresses me as being very unspiritual. After a Sunday’s activities, or even more likely after some big event, I’ll ask someone who was involved, “Did we have fun?” I ask this question knowing that there are many folks—sometimes I’m in that crowd—who live in order to have a good time. I know there are other metrics for judging whether something is good or bad, and I know that at least part of the time those criteria are more important than the presence or absence of a smile on my face. Still, I find my hedonistic question to be of some value, and I don’t think I’m alone.
I’ve been camped out for a while in Solomon’s “Life Under the Sun” resort. It rains a lot there, and all the tents leak. When the sun does shine, which it does from time to time, campers can make out the sign on the building that houses the recreation facilities, including the ice cream parlor. The sign reads:
“There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink
and see good for themselves in their toil”
(Ecc 2:24).
I’ll quit with camping resort illustration. Before Solomon gets to his big, serious conclusion at the end of his somewhat enigmatic book (12:13-14), as if he were riding on a merry-go-round, he keeps circling around to this eat-and-drink theme. It’s a theme that is repeated elsewhere in Scripture, and it doesn’t always get a good press.
- I ran into one instance, last week, as I was working on a sermon. In Luke 17, Jesus is speaking about being ready for judgment. He brings up two notable examples. In Noah’s day, the people were eating and drinking and doing other fun things (Luke 17:27). They were distracted and didn’t pay attention to the preaching of Noah. The end result was no fun at all, “[T]he flood came and destroyed them all.”
Likewise with the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot’s day (Luke 17:28). In addition to eating and drinking, they did a lot of shopping. This time it was brimstone instead of a flood, but the three key words are the same, “destroyed them all.” - The guy we often call the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21) was really enjoying his agricultural success. He said to his soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”God called him a fool.
1 Miller, D. B. (2010). Ecclesiastes (p. 59). Herald Press.
- In 1 Corinthians 15:32, the Apostle Paul says this eating-and-drinking lifestyle is appropriate for those who don’t know about, or don’t believe in life after this life. Indeed, all of us who have spent some time looking around in this “under the sun” world have seen versions of the rich fool. A good time was being had, until it wasn’t, and then it really wasn’t. Tragic.
So far what I’ve said would lead one to believe that my question about fun is at best a faulty metric and
Solomon gives a version of what many would call a “hedonistic” value system perhaps half-a-dozen times—2:24-26, 3:12-13, 5:18-20, 8:15, 9:7-9, & (perhaps) 10:19. You can read them for yourself. If it’s been a while since you read Ecclesiastes, I encourage you to read the whole book.
Perhaps we could explain (explain away) Solomon’s devotion to enjoying life as a result of his cynicism. The first couple chapters of Ecclesiastes certainly have a cynical ring. I’d probably be cynical too if I had to put up with what Solomon put himself through. A wise observer named, “Jim,” comments on just one aspect of Solomon’s troubles—his many wives and concubines. “. . . why would a wise man want to live in de mids' er sich a blim-blammin' all de time? No -- 'deed he wouldn't. A wise man 'ud take en buil' a biler-factry [boiler making was famous for making people deaf]; en den he could shet down de biler-factry when he want to res'." (Jim to Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain’s classic)
The word, “jaded” was probably invented for Solomon. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that he had a jade encrusted robe. Jaded folks don’t see things right.
Then there is Solomon’s literary visor, the one he pulled down far enough so that he couldn’t see anything above the horizon. The phrase, “under the sun,” is used almost thirty times in Ecclesiastes. Solomon chose, for literary reasons, to write from the perspective that only included what a human, apart from Divine revelation, could experience down here under the sun. As you’ll see in a moment, however, there are times in the book that Solomon takes his visor off and let’s the light of God’s revealed truth shine in. But, I’m ahead of myself.
If not for one concept that comes through clearly in Solomon’s attempt to make sense of life down here, I’d just say, the Book of Ecclesiastes is an old man venting his spleen about how hard life is. I’d conclude that his repeated recommendation of good food and drink was just another version of Y.O.L.O (You Only Live Once) with the wise Kings commentary, “and it ain’t gonna be no walk in the park, so if you get a chance to have a little fun you better grab it before somebody else greedier and quicker than you snatches it away.”
The one thing that keeps me from labeling Ecclesiastes as the cynical musing of a jaded old man who is terribly disappointed with life is this:
Every time Solomon mentions his formula that, “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good” (2:24). He also says that this is from God.
- “This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God” (2:24).
- “It is the gift of God” (3:13).
- “This is the gift of God” (5:19).
- “This will stand by him in his toils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun” (8:15).
- “This is your reward in life” (9:9).
I add to the words of Solomon, the declaration of the Apostle Paul. “. . . God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).
So, what does all this have to do with hard working servants of Christ?
I’ll answer your question with the question I started with.
Are you having fun?
I’m not saying that fun is our chief end. Solomon pretty well clobbered that notion in Ecclesiastes 2:1-2. I haven’t converted to health-and-wealth-ism. I know that there are hard things, sometimes really hard things that need to be dealt with in God honoring ways. But, I maintain that in general we ought to have some fun. Certainly, we shouldn’t be afraid of or ashamed of a wholesome good time.
Right now, I’m going to go ride my bike.
By His Grace,
HM
