Down2Earth: 11. Having Everything.. and Yet Nothing
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labour. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 (NIV)
I usually make a point of watching/listening/reading the latest news. However, during the last few weeks, I haven’t worried too much about missing the occasional news report since so much of it has been extremely depressing and pessimistic. The dominating theme has been the state of the economy as we’ve seen it go from ‘credit crunch’ to ‘down-turn’ and now into full blown recession. That’s now all resulting in the tragic situation of people losing their jobs and homes.
Unlike arguments about climate change (where some people argue that the changes are, in part, as much a result of natural phenomenon as much as man-made activities), there are no similar arguments as to the causes of the current economic crisis. This is 100% man-made – bankers, eager to earn maximum commission, lending money to people who were in no position to pay it back; consumers, eager to take ownership of homes, cars and numerous other material possessions, borrowing amounts of money that was way beyond their means. Get now, pay later has been the dominant philosophy for many years with credit cards being so readily available. At the same time, while not a direct cause of the problems, the level of government borrowing in countries around the world has been eye-watering even before the bank bail-outs and this has set the tone for the rest of society. It was a mathematical certainty that, sooner or later, this bubble was going to burst.
A sad aspect of all this is that even when a person has everything in terms of material wealth, it can still leave a sense of unfulfilment. You only have to consider Solomon, a man known for his extreme wealth as well as his astounding wisdom. He had everything – read the verses that precede the above passage (Ecclesiastes 2:1-9) – he owned houses, vineyards, gardens, water pools, silver, gold, servants etc. Yet, though he could take some satisfaction from a sense of accomplishment, when he reflects on the real value of what he’d achieved, he concluded that it was meaningless and chasing after the wind. There was no real gain and it will ultimately count for nothing before God. I wonder how many of us relate to that feeling – perhaps in the context of working really hard to keep up a certain standard of living but realising that the real cost comes in terms of stress, ill-health, having no quality time, poor relationships and subsequently not really being able to enjoy the fruit of all that hard work. Many people talk about the feeling of anti-climax at Christmas time once all the presents have been unwrapped and all the food has been eaten. Those material things seem to promise so much but, in reality, deliver so little.
Perhaps a silver lining to the economic clouds will be that people will reflect more on their lifestyles and set some new priorities. Already, many are restricting their spending to things needed rather than things wanted. But when the economy eventually recovers and the feel-good factor returns, will it be back to the cycle of spend and borrow again? My hope would be that during these difficult times, people will rediscover the simple but important things, for example, their health, their family, their friends, their local community etc. And above all, that there’s a spiritual dimension to life which doesn’t depend on owning material possessions. Solomon came to realise that, unlike everything man does that will ultimately come to an end, ‘..everything God does will endure for ever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it’ (Ecclesiastes 3:14).
