Day Ten: Third Time’s a Joy

The first time I studied Ecclesiastes, I saw weariness. I
felt weary and verses about chasing the wind were on-point. Reading it was like
talking to a good friend – “good” because the friend tells you the truth. It was
an uncomfortable series of conversations, but necessary, leading me to a full
scrap of poor choices I’d made.

The second time I studied Ecclesiastes, I saw decisions. Many
people deny the presence of God, while claiming a greater purpose behind what
happens to them. This is a non-decision, and the writer of Ecclesiastes
dismantles it. There’s no deeper meaning in the horizontal absent of the
vertical to the God who designed it all. It’s a wise text and was helpful in
the book I was writing at the time.

On Saturday mornings, I meet with three women to talk about
the Bible. It’s low-key – no leader, no study guides – just a chapter to sift
through each week in our own way. It was my turn to choose the book, and I chose
Ecclesiastes. It had been a few years since I studied it last and almost ten
years since I studied it the first time. Much of the good I see now in my life
came from the full scrap after that first reading.



Which is all to say that the third time I studied Ecclesiastes, in
Winter 2019, I saw joy.