Vanity

Vanity is something I know first-hand; it ruled my life for the first 30+ years. It is ruling people today and in the future. Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 1 the sun rises and sets as one generation passes and another generation comes. Each man that labors, all is vain. 

My Grandfather was a chemist. He along with three other people in the 50’s invented paint for the stop sign.  All four were listed in the printed version of the Chemical Abstracts when researching in the University Library. Nobody remembers these four people.     

The preacher Solomon, David’s son, writes the letter of Ecclesiastes through the wisdom he received when God approached him to give to him something (2 Chronicles 1). Solomon asks for Wisdom, God grants it. 

I Kings 4:29 “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore….32 And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.”

The Holy Bible has 31 Proverbs and 150 Psalms but not all of them are written by Solomon. 

Solomon lived a vain, wealthy life before gaining this wisdom, he writes in Ecclesiastes everything in this life is “Vanity”. All is vanity, we labor day and night when the sun rises until the sunsets. The word Vanity appears 86 times in the Holy Bible, 33 times in Ecclesiastes. 

When a person looks up the definition of vain or vanity, they would have seen my picture front and center before Jesus came into my life. It is true, vainness engulfed my whole persona consuming every thought or action. 

It is easy to understand the vainness of our current society through Social Media which allows people to show off their life. As if their life, has a virtuous meaning. What started out as a good thing, has truly brought the dark side of society taking vainness to a whole new level. 

When Jesus came into my life, He had to prune every vain thought and action out of my soul which was very painful. My wife was very instrumental in helping me as well. She is an incredibly humble and modest person. There were several Pastors which were not too keen on her getting married to me. We will celebrate 19 wonderful years of marriage in August, truly God’s greatest earthly gift besides the salvation of my soul.

Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3 there is season for every purpose. It starts with a time to be born and a time to die and everything that happens in between our first and last breath. Once we die, we return to earth as dust, our spirit returns to God who gave us life (Eccl 12:7). 

Several Holy Bible versions say “Meaningless” not Vanity which misses the point. Everything is not meaningless; otherwise, Jesus dying on the cross was in vain. The second to the last verse in Ecclesiastes 12:13 says “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”

Solomon warns us about reading books that tires our soul. The reason I wrote “Walk to God” is to introduce people to Jesus. When we lived in NYC, I would read 2 books a week taking the train 45 minutes each way to work. The only book I have read in the last 10 years is, you guessed it, the Holy Bible. 

Each one of us has a choice to chase vanity or fear God. Everything we do on earth in secret whether good or evil, will be judged by God.