Utopia Is for Fools – Eccl. 7:1-14
My line of work involves creating online content. I’ve noticed in recent years that a lot of my clients want their content to be strictly positive. Some of them will send work back for edits if I so much as mention anything that could be construed as negative. It’s absurd. But guess what? We seem to have the same attitude in the Church. We obsess over what we believe is positive and intentionally ignore the negative. It’s why so many local churches never crack the Old Testament.
Life offers both positive and negative; both joy and sorrow. When we close our eyes to the negative we encourage our hearts and minds to embrace a utopian fantasy world that doesn’t exist. We end up focusing on momentary pleasure instead of what eternity holds. And in so doing, we become fools. Solomon experienced this very thing, as we’ll see in today’s text.