Chasing the Eternal Light: From Vanity to God’s Purpose
Ecclesiastes 2:1
I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity.
The Preacher in Ecclesiastes, traditionally identified as Solomon, grapples with the meaning of life through a series of experiments and reflections. In Ecclesiastes 2:1, he tests the pursuit of pleasure, seeking to find fulfillment in indulgence and enjoyment. His conclusion, however, is that this pursuit is "vanity" (in Hebrew, often translated as "meaningless," "futile," or "vapor" ).
And once again we're going to weigh the Preacher's claims against his own final conclusion. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
"The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil."
The claim he's making is earthly pursuits, when divorced from a higher purpose, fail to provide lasting satisfaction. Your Instagram posts may last forever but the satisfaction won't.
Ecclesiastes 2 is a reflective narrative where the Preacher (Solomon), recounts his quest to find meaning "under the sun". He systematically tests pleasure, wisdom, and work, only to conclude that each is "vanity". Solomon indulges in hedonistic pleasures and grand projects. He evaluates wisdom’s value over folly but finds both ultimately futile due to death’s impartiality. He despairs over the fruits of his labor, as they may be inherited by unworthy people, while at the same time he finds a joy in God-given enjoyment. He explores his addictions through intoxication, seeking to stimulate his senses. He's a functional drunk, building houses, planting vineyards, and creating gardens and parks, showcasing architectural and agricultural achievements. He gathers to himself great wealth; slaves, herds, silver, gold, and treasures, surpassing all before him in Jerusalem. And he's of course caught up in sex, drugs, and rock and roll (euphemistically speaking). He acquires singers and "many concubines," indulging in sensual pleasures.
Despite these accomplishments, in 2:10-11 he delivers the verdict:
"Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them…And behold, all was vanity and a striving after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun."
The conclusion, pleasure, though momentarily satisfying, lacks enduring substance because it’s transient and cannot address existential questions like mortality or purpose.
So, the Preacher turns to wisdom, asking whether it offers more meaning than folly (2:12).
Ecclesiastes 2:12
"Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done? I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both."
Death catches up to both the wise and the fool. Wisdom, though valuable, cannot exempt one from mortality. The inevitability of death renders even wisdom’s advantages fleeting in a purely earthly framework.
The relentless grind and anxiety of labor seem to yield little lasting gain. The lack of control over one’s legacy, deepening the sense of futility. He's learned the hard way that his despair over toil in 2:18-23 stems from its impermanence and lack of control over outcomes. Seems like no matter how high he rises and how great his success, it's all still vanishing in death. His experiments reveal that pleasure, wisdom, and toil, when pursued for their own sake, are like chasing the wind.
When I read these words, what comes to mind is a favorite song lyric by Bob Segar. I was 18 when he wrote "Against The Wind". And I'd have to say I was definitely living like that, chasing wind. And like the song, I guess I still am. He writes, "seems like yesterday, but it was long ago." And somehow even as a very young man I could already relate with the timeless wisdom of his words. It was almost like looking into my own future. Overall, the meaning of this song is about life and its futility. About pushing through life like running against the wind. It's about maturing through love, exploration, failure, heartbreak, and betrayal. It's about the passing of time. And it's strange for a young man to be reflecting upon his life at such an early stage while still running through it. But somehow even then I saw things from an eternal perspective.
The song is about learning to realize what is important in your life. In an interview with Rolling stone magazine, Segar commented on the song:
"Jan [his then-girlfriend Janey Dinsdale] says to me all the time, ‘You allow more people to walk on you than anybody I’ve ever known.’ And I always say it’s human nature that people are gonna love you sometimes and they’re gonna use you sometimes, Knowing the difference between when people are using you and when people truly care about you, that’s what ‘Against the Wind’ is all about. The people in that song have weathered the storm, and it’s made them much better that they’ve been able to do it and maintain whatever relationship. To get through is a real victory."
From his perspective, the futility of life is balanced by the relationships you keep. Striving against the wind to maintain the relationship. Keeping the peace, weathering the storms, holding on to the wind.
"I found myself seeking shelter against the wind"
And yet, it's confusing because obviously he's admitting that even that is futile, or as Solomon says, vanity. We can see the truth of it in his final verse:
"Well those drifters days are past me now"
"I've got so much more to think about"
"Deadlines and commitments"
"What to leave in, what to leave out"
"Against the wind"
"I'm still runnin' against the wind"
"I'm older now but still running
Against the wind"
"Well I'm older now and still running
Against the wind"
Conclusion:
Pleasure, wisdom, and toil, when pursued for their own sake, are like "chasing the wind", a phrase that aligns strikingly with Seger’s imagery of running against the wind. Both depict a relentless, often futile struggle against life’s intangibility. Bob Seger’s Against the Wind serves as a modern parallel to Ecclesiastes 2, reflecting on life’s futility and the search for what endures. Seger’s refrain, "I’m still runnin’ against the wind," captures the relentless push through life’s challenges. Similarly, the Preacher’s "striving after wind" (Ecc. 2:11, 17) reflects the exhaustion of chasing fleeting goals. Both acknowledge that life’s pursuits often feel like battling an elusive force, whether it’s pleasure, success, or legacy.
Social media, wealth, or success, like Solomon’s pleasures, and Segar's running against the wind, promise fulfillment but often leave us empty. The Preacher’s call to fear God invites us to anchor our lives in the transcendent: a relationship with the eternal Creator.
Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6:19-21 (and related passages like John 6:27, "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life" ) emphasizes prioritizing eternal realities over temporal gains. Earthly treasures: wealth, status, pleasure, are subject to decay and loss, much like the Preacher’s "striving after wind" (Ecc. 2:11). Heavenly treasures, rooted in God’s kingdom, endure because they are grounded in the eternal. And there is nothing that will ever destroy that kingdom. So lay it up there. Seek that home. Chase that wind. Obeying His commands aligns our human life with eternal realities, akin to Jesus’ "treasures in heaven." Divine judgment ensures that our actions have lasting significance, transforming even mundane tasks into acts of eternal consequence when done for God’s glory.
The 2014 film "Interstellar", directed by Christopher Nolan, explores humanity’s survival through space exploration, time dilation, and love’s transcendent power. And the final lesson learned is the transcendent power of love. Love and human connection transcend time and space like gravity (Murphy’s realization of her father Cooper’s message through the tesseract), parallels the Preacher’s shift from vanity to God’s eternal purpose. Just as Cooper’s actions ripple across generations, the Preacher and Jesus teach that deeds aligned with God’s will have lasting significance under divine judgment. Call them what you want: Angels, Watchers, Aliens, gods, and demons, these forces are involved in our world and our souls operating from the "tesseract" or the fourth dimension, the "heavenly places".
In the movie, Cooper is suspended in a lattice of infinite timelines. This imaginary aligns amazingly with what I've seen as a crystalline lattice of light that is God's light. I see heaven as a divine structure radiating eternal order and purpose, under God’s authority, countering the vanity of earthly pursuits. God shapes our souls’ eternal path, like the tesseract’s role [Interstellar’s "they"] in Cooper’s legacy. Earthly treasures (pleasure, wisdom, toil) are vanity, like Interstellar’s failing crops, but heavenly treasures: love, obedience, faith, all these treasures, Jesus tells us, endure in God’s kingdom.
The truth is Jesus' divine light, transcends sci-fi and classic rock, rooting transcendence in God’s eternal nature. False gods or demons, operate in that same universe and cast false light (chasing wind) into the divine structures. But Jesus as "the light of the world" (John 8:12), transforms fleeting acts of vanity into eternal ones.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, Radiant Creator whose light shines as a crystalline lattice of eternal order, we come before You with hearts seeking what endures. In the fleeting pleasures of this world, we confess we have chased the wind, pursuing vanities that fade like vapor. Lord, You are the Light of the World, and in Your divine presence, we find true purpose. Illuminate our paths with Your eternal truth. Help us to fear You, to keep Your commandments, and to lay up treasures in heaven. Guard us from the false lights of this world, deceptions that mimic Your glory but lead to futility. By Your Spirit, anchor us in Your kingdom, where divine judgment transforms even our mundane tasks into deeds of everlasting significance. Fill us with the transcendent power of Your love, which, like gravity, binds us to You across time and space. We pray this in the name of Jesus, our eternal Light, who leads us from vanity to the glory of Your everlasting kingdom. Amen.