Lessons Learned

All of us desire meaning in life, and that’s true no matter who you are. Our search for it often leads us down winding paths filled with short-lived bursts of satisfaction that shine bright for a brief time but eventually wane. When we attempt to find ultimate meaning in the pursuit of pleasure, or through a successful career, or in our educational pursuits, we will eventually find all of these roads to be a dead end. For a season in his life, King Solomon tried to find ultimate meaning in things such as knowledge, pleasure, work, and wealth. As he reflected back on all of his pursuits under the sun, he described them as chasing after the wind. The things that he thought would satisfy him only ended up disappointing him in the end. Apart from God, it was all an empty pursuit. And in retrospect, he says to us here in this passage, “I learned my lesson!” We would do well to learn from his experience. What lessons did Solomon learn, and what application do they have for our lives today?