- The Easter period invites a reconsideration of suffering, meaning, and hope in a world marked by crisis.
- Ecclesiastes challenges the belief that life rewards goodness in predictable ways and instead confronts life’s uncertainty.
- Hope emerges not from control, but from embracing life’s fragility and choosing to live meaningfully in the present.
In times of great strife – as the world has been experiencing in recent years – it has become harder to speak honestly about hope.
In a moment in which we find ourselves surrounded by anger, abuse, catastrophes, and crises on every level of life, many people are understandably exhausted by such unyielding demands on our emotional capacity. Others feel tempted to withdraw, to look away, or to settle for easy answers that promise order in a world that no longer seems to follow clear rules.
Ecclesiastes confronts the myth of predictable rewards
As we enter the Easter period – traditionally a time of confronting suffering, questioning the meaning of life, and holding onto hope – it is perhaps timeous to reconsider an ancient and often-avoided text that offers an unexpectedly relevant perspective.
The biblical book of Ecclesiastes has a reputation for being bleak. It is often summarised in a single, stark phrase, “Everything is meaningless” – a conclusion perhaps drawn from one of its most cited observations, “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favour to the men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.”
This way of viewing the world challenges a deeply rooted belief that still shapes how many people think about life, that living a godly life will ensure happiness, success and health, that good behaviour will be rewarded and bad behaviour punished. Of course, life does not always work that way. The race does not always go to the swiftest, nor riches to the most intelligent or kind.
At first glance, this sounds like the last thing anyone needs to hear right now. But that reading misses something important. What I like about Ecclesiastes is that it offers honest, straightforward insights about life. It is not trying to depress us. It is trying to tell us the truth. By stripping away the illusion that life follows a neat moral formula, it frees us from a dangerous expectation that we can secure meaning through control.
Why being alive is itself a source of hope
So where does this leave us? Is this much misunderstood book saying, “Life sucks, so get used to it!”? Not at all. On the contrary, it challenges us to awaken to this life, to the fact that we are alive at this very moment. It reminds us of a far more demanding and hopeful alternative that precisely because life is unpredictable, fragile and finite, it matters deeply how we live it.
The book’s stark reminder that we will all die – and that we do not know when – is not meant to frighten us into paralysis. It is meant to (re-)awaken us to the fact that we are here on earth now, that we are alive, and this in itself is a source of hope.
The text makes a striking observation, “Anyone who is among the living has hope – even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!”, reminding us that it is better to be alive – even in the most modest of circumstances – than to possess greatness that has already passed into death. Life itself, however ordinary, is a gift.
Reclaiming joy in an uncertain life
And from this comes Ecclesiastes’ most misunderstood instruction Enjoy life. “Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do… Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun – all your meaningless days…”
Rather than endorsing nihilism, Ecclesiastes reframes meaninglessness as a gift. In so doing, we turn the phrase “life sucks” on its head if life “sucks”, then we are called to “seek life” – to draw from it everything that is still meaningful, still good, still worth holding onto. Ecclesiastes encourages us to move beyond pessimism or despair; despite everything that is unjust and unfair, despite what appears to be the meaninglessness of it all, it calls us to seize life, pursue wise behaviour, and do good, even in the smallest ways, for this is what gives meaning to what feels meaningless.
Choosing how to live is the beginning of hope
We are living in a time defined by uncertainty and upheaval, which makes it all the more important to drink in every God-given drop of sweet pleasure. To enjoy whatever we can, every day.
To gain deeper insight into ourselves, to seize every moment, and to make today matter. We can choose how we live today. And that, perhaps, is where hope begins.
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