Ecclesiastes 2
The old man Solomon testifies that he had denied himself nothing, achieved everything a man could achieve, had every pleasure possible, he got to the very top and when he did there was nothing there. All that was ahead was the same thing that a man who had wasted his life had waiting for him: death.
“So I hated life” v17
Thank God for this old man. I have always learnt more from the struggler than those who have lived in perpetual victory.
Solomon, I don’t want to hate life. I want to enjoy it. I don’t want my life to be meaningless.
The Count of Monte Cristo tells the story of Dantes who is unjustly accused and sentenced to life in France’s most dreaded prison. After 13 years he escapes, but has been unwilling to talk with Mercedes, the woman to whom he was engaged before he went to prison. Thinking that she betrayed him, he does not realize that she never stopped loving him over the years. At the end of the movie, Mercedes finds him and seeks to reconcile with him. “Let it go, Edmond,” she pleads. “Let it go. I don’t know what dark plan lies within you. Nor do I know by what design we were asked to live without each other these 16 years. But God has offered us a new beginning—don’t slap his hand away.” “God! Can I never escape him?” “No,” Mercedes says. “He is in everything.”
Solomon found that “without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” v25
In order not to hate life, God must be in everything.
Martin Luther was approached by a working man who wanted to know how he could serve God. Luther asked him, “What is your work now?” The man said, “I’m a shoemaker.” Much to the cobblers surprise, Luther replied, “Then make good shoes and sell them at a fair price.”
God in my work. God in my rest. God in my leisure. God in my everything. For without Him there can be no enjoyment.
Missions Paul 