“Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. . . .So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.”

– ‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭2:15, 20-21‬‬

After seeking to pursue pleasure for its own sake and coming up empty, Solomon turned his attention to wisdom and work.  Once again, he came up empty.  Why?  We can perhaps understand work pursued as an end coming up dry.  Solomon’s point is valid: We work hard, create an inheritance, pass it along to someone else, and they may or may not squander it.  What’s the point?  

But wisdom?  Surely that should be its own reward.  And yet the wise and the fool come to the same end: death.  Again: What’s the point?

What we must come to realize–through Solomon’s efforts rather than our own experience hopefully–is that anything, even good things, when pursued for its own sake will not leave us satisfied with our efforts.  Anything in this life when pursued as an end in itself, will prove empty.  This life, because of sin, is fraught with futility.  Every part is infected with it.  If we take this world on its own terms and for its own sake, we will find only disappointment and frustration.  What we need is the proper lens through which to see it and pursue it.  

When we pursue things for the glory of God we can take them in as they were designed.  And when we pursue them in accordance with their design, we will find the delight and satisfaction we are seeking.  Through any other path we will only discover the futility and vanity which Solomon decried.