This chapter strikes me as a bit depressing. But then again it may be very real. How many people enjoy the life they have? How many people trudge through day after day with little or no enthusiasm for living?
Verse 9 provided my words of contemplation. Better what the eye sees than the roving of the appetite. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
What I understand the writer to mean is that life is better content with what one can achieve rather than constantly chasing after things you will never have.
The lure of more can make me restless. I see a new this or that and I find I do not appreciate what I do have or realistically could have. This is obvious for me in my shop. My hobby is woodworking. There is something satisfying about creating things out of wood for me. As I thumb through magazines and watch ‘do-it-yourself’ videos on ‘youtube’ invariably a new tool pops up… ahhhh, just what I need. That thought hits me like a thunderbolt. I never knew this tool existed. I was getting along fine without it but now that I know it exists “I need it.”
It is scary. How much of my accumulated stuff is in this category. Isn’t this, in part, what the writer warns us about… the roving of the appetite?
I don’t want to be a miser who cannot appreciate and enjoy the life I have been graced to live, but neither do I want to be always searching for that elusive ‘something more.’
Oh, God, help me strike a balance to enjoy the life You have given while cultivating generosity and a caring soul for people I can help. Lord, continue to send Your Spirit, reminding me life is not about me but about living for You and serving others in Your name. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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