ife has a way of tossing hard questions at us.

Something suddenly stops us in our tracks and sets us thinking.

It might be holding a newborn child.
Bumping up against the glass ceiling at work.
Celebrating your fiftieth wedding anniversary.
Losing a loved one to cancer.
Staring into a starry sky.
Going through a divorce.
Turning forty.

It could be anything, really.

Whatever it is, it causes the questions to fly:
Who am I?
Why am I here?
What gives my life meaning and significance?
Is there a God?
If there is, what does that mean for me?

These are the questions that underlie this collection of readings. They come from a book of ancient wisdom called Ecclesiasteswhich means, “The Teacher.”

Ecclesiastes was written in the Middle East about three thousand years ago by Solomon–a king who seemingly had it all. Wealth. Brilliance. Power. Yet he knew he lacked one thing: an answer to the biggest question of life. The question of meaning.

his book is a record of Solomon’s various journeys and musings in the search for meaning found in Ecclesiastes. It is stark, probing and brutally honest. In spite of his privilege, Solomon doesn’t hesitate to get down in the streets and look hard at the gritty daily realities of common people.

Honest searching means facing the hard things. So Solomon doesn’t flinch from life’s difficulties. He complains loudly about life’s injustices. He bemoans the apparent futility of so much living, working and dying. He doesn’t hide from the dark side.

If meaning is to be found in our lives, Solomon seems convinced it will be found through the hard things, not by avoiding them. The dark side has its say. The question, of course, is whether it gets the last word.

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