By Drew Gilliland
Program & Research Associate, G.L.O.B.A.L. Justice
It’s almost Thanksgiving, one of our society’s most revered and simultaneously (and ironically) overlooked holidays. There may be contentions over its origins, but the notion that we should take a day to be thankful for what we’ve been given has tremendous life-changing potential.
Our society is arguably the most-connected, fastest-moving, always-on society the world has ever known. With newsfeed updates, phone notifications, the ever-present barrage of ads, and the mixing of old and new music, TV shows, and movies, we as a people rarely, if ever, actually take a moment to sit. We’re always chasing happiness, success, recognition, profits, power, pleasure, etc. We are collectively spinning our wheels most of the time, with injustice and outrage and loneliness and division to show for it. It’s no wonder that BuzzFeed News recently wrote an article entitled, “The 2010s Have Broken Our Sense Of Time.” We’re quite skilled at chasing after the wind.
“The Teacher” in the ancient Hebrew wisdom book of Ecclesiastes was, as well. He tried chasing everything that we chase – wealth, fame, power, love – and found that everything in our world is “hevel, hevel, everything is utterly hevel.” Hevel, usually translated as “meaningless” or “vanity,” is the Hebrew word for vapor or smoke, and is used 38 times in the book. Life is temporary and fleeting, and it is an enigma and a paradox, just like smoke. Smoke appears solid, but if you try to grab hold of it, it slips through your fingers. It can also cloud our vision and disorient us to reality. There are accounts of celebrities and sports superstars who achieve their wildest dreams, only to find that their achievements don’t give them the satisfaction they had hoped for. Like smoke, trying to grasp life’s meaning can appear to be solid and achievable, only for it to cruelly slip away. In the world of justice, we can play an everlasting game of whack-a-mole, where one issue seems to be solved while another injustice rears its ugly head. It can be absolutely demoralizing and disheartening.
So why do I turn to Ecclesiastes for hope if it declares that all life is like chasing the wind – a pointless and fruitless exercise? Because the Teacher doesn’t end there. He encourages us to stop trying to find meaning in our striving, and instead accept that life is out of our control. Throughout the book, just when things get very dark, he reminds us of the gift of God: the enjoyment of simple, good things in life, like a conversation with a friend, time with family, a good meal, or a sunny day – the simple pleasures of life. We cannot control any of these things, but that’s what makes them so good. When we adopt a posture of trust in and gratitude to God, it frees us to enjoy life as we actually experience it, not how we think it ought to be.
The work of justice is good, worthwhile, and the Teacher even says that God’s ways of living with love and and justice are good and should be pursued. But this Thanksgiving, and as we come up on the end of the year, it’s easy for us to scramble even more – to grasp at smoke and chase wind. Let us remember to enjoy the little moments of this beautiful time of the year – leaves, lights, songs, hot drinks, family & friends, laughter and food. We can be a part of doing justice to and with the people around us if we enjoy them like the gifts they are. And if everyone in society lived like this, I think we would see a lot less hatred, greed, violence, and division. As JRR Tolkien once said in his book, The Hobbit, “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” Let us adopt a posture of humility and gratitude so we can experience God’s goodness to us and be refreshed as we continue to pursue justice in his name.
Many thanks to the good people at The Bible Project, who helped show me how beautiful Ecclesiastes really is. I borrowed from two of their videos (linked above) for some of this piece.