Trivial Pursuit

The words trivial and trivia can be traced back to a Latin noun meaning “a place where three roads meet.” In time, it also came to mean “of little worth or importance.” This is the main meaning of the word today. By this definition, the expression ‘trivial pursuit’ obviously refers to more than a board game. It is a way of referring to those matters in life which are supposedly inconsequential, a waste of time and energy. At first glance, it may seem that the author of Ecclesiastes is writing to us about trivial pursuits in life. But as we have already seen, he is writing from an ‘under the sun’ kind of perspective which he refers to as being ‘vanity.’ Some read the book and come to the conclusion that it is about the meaningless of life. And while it may appear this way strictly on the surface, Ecclesiastes is really about the meaninglessness of life apart from God.