I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind: God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil. Ecclesiastes 6:1-2
“Fifth, learn to enjoy things without owning them. Owning things is an obsession in our culture. If we own it, we feel we can control it; and if we can control it, we feel it will give us more pleasure. The idea is an illusion. Many things in life can be enjoyed without possessing or controlling them. Share things. Enjoy the beach without feeling you have to buy a piece of it. Enjoy public parks and libraries.”
Richard Foster (b. 1942) in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 93.
I was just talking about this with my host and friend here in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, David Richmond. Whatever we think we own, owns us. Then it steals our ability to enjoy it because as Foster says “if we can control it, we feel it will give us more pleasure.”
No one who is a slave to things can either enjoy them or find satisfaction in them. So the grievous evil is not that God does not give us the ability to enjoy things. He allows our obsessions and lets them lead us to emptiness rather than to Him as the only One who satisfies.
If you want to hear my sermon along these general lines today, entitled “The Secret to Grasping Life in the Economy of God,” visit The Abbey at Pawleys Island streaming page at 10:30am ET or listen to the recording later on that same page.