Our family might not watch another movie with Jim Carrey for the next decade, because our children were so freaked out watching the live action Grinch movie last Christmas. It turns out the Benedict Cumberbatch Grinch of 2018 does not have the same power of inducing nightmares as Carrey.
However, I stumbled upon a quote from Carrey that seemed relevant to our passage today.
“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.” -Jim Carrey
Unlike the Grinch’s two times too small heart, I know nothing about the state of Jim Carrey’s heart. However he is spot on with the writer of Ecclesiastes. This week marks the beginning of our summer series in Ecclesiastes. While the author of the book is uncertain, most Biblical scholars believe the author to be Solomon, and so we will move forward with that assumption. Solomon, the son of King David, was blessed by God with enormous amounts of wealth and honor (1 Kings 3:13). He is the guy who had everything he could possibly want, and this context is important as we approach the book of Ecclesiastes.
The first few verses of the book seem like a real downer and honestly not a “go to” choice for family devotional time. However, my hope with FortheFours is that we can feel equipped to approach more challenging scripture with our families. So as Solomon dramatically laments that life is “utterly meaningless,” our big 3 takeaways for this week are as follows:
Everybody has a job to do. Even when your work feels unimportant, it can be used to glorify God.
Life can feel meaningless IF not walking with God.
Having everything you want will not satisfy you.
While you have likely never yelled out “everything is meaningless!” parenting can often feel mundane, route, or unimportant. Whether that be cleaning the kitchen table only to clean it again a few hours later, having a showdown over morning tooth brushing with a toddler only to do it again that evening, or benevolently stocking the pantry only to have the snacks for the week sucked out overnight. Of course, these tasks are important, but often they feel useless in that the work we do will have to be done again so soon. While the life of a suburban mother in 2025 is far different from King Solomon’s life, we can learn much from the way he “puts his powers of wisdom to work to examine the human experience and assess the human situation” in a way that is so relevant to us today.
*taken from the NIV study Bible Zondervan
There is a time for everything under the sun, so here’s to attempt Ecclesiastes with the fam…
Anne
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