“‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’”        – Ecclesiastes 1:2

The funnel cakes at the Tennessee Valley Fair are overpriced and unhealthy. The Beer Garden is not my scene. Likewise, I have no desire to peruse the horticulture competitions, featuring the “Best Pair of Okra Pods.” Still, I go to the annual fair if only to visit my all-time favorite attraction—the petting zoo. Where else can you bond with a drooling camel or watch a boa constrictor suffocate and devour third place in the commercial bred rabbit division?  

The crown jewel of the petting zoo, however, is the duckling exhibit. For 20 minutes, I watch dozens of adorable baby fowl swim in a baby pool, climb a ramp, and jostle for position to reach a food container. As they strain for the unreachable pellets, they drop onto a ramp and slide down into the water to repeat the process. All day long!

I want to shout to these naive little ducklings, “Excuse me! Can I have your attention, please? Your system isn’t working! You keep circling and climbing and reaching, but you never get full. There’s got to be a better way!”

Toward the end of his life, Solomon realized that everything in the world was empty and void of meaning. He sums up his depressing viewpoint with, “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). 

Note the phrase “under the sun”—the key to the verse and the entire book. Solomon is sharing an earthbound, godless perspective—life “under the sun.” Throughout Ecclesiastes, he shares 10 meaningless, earthly pursuits: human wisdom (2:14–16); labor (2:18–23); amassing things (2:26); life itself (3:18–22); competition (4:4); selfish overwork (4:7–8); power and authority (4:16); greed (5:10); wealth and accolades (6:1–2); and perfunctory religion (8:10–14).

The note from my Bible’s margin reads: Apart from God’s will, earthly pursuits are meaningless—a chasing after the wind. Solomon had the resources to try it all, but when he left God out of the equation, he was unsatisfied. His life lacked purpose. He was like those ducklings—circling, climbing, jostling, and reaching—but unfulfilled. In Ecclesiastes 12:13b, he concludes, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

What are you circling and chasing? What rewards do you seek? Is the ladder you’re climbing leaned against the right wall?