King Solomon turns to wisdom on his quest to find meaning in life. He sees that the wise seem to look at things in ways the fool does not. In the end, he concludes that even wisdom is ultimately meaningless. Although the wise make good decisions and see the world differently, they eventually die and are forgotten.
He isn’t saying it is pointless to learn, grow and become wise. He is illustrating that wisdom can’t give life meaning.
Our culture places a high value on education, knowledge and wisdom. We believe they are important and worth pursuing. The truth is they are.
If we’re not careful, we can find ourselves in a never-ending cycle to give our lives meaning through education and knowledge. We may tell ourselves we’ll be happy once we finally get that mechanic license, college degree, work certification, understand that subject or know more about retirement accounts and investing. While all of these pursuits are worthwhile endeavors—they will never give our lives ultimate meaning.
So how about you? Are you chasing after wisdom and knowledge in hopes that you will find happiness and meaning along the way? Wisdom and knowledge have significant meaning and purpose, but they can never give you real meaning and purpose.
As you reflect on your pursuit of meaning and purpose through knowledge and wisdom, spend a few minutes and watch this video. May the words in the song be your prayer today and that Christ would be your Solid Rock. May your hope be built on nothing else but Jesus.