THE PURSUIT OF LASTING HAPPINESS

With eyes wide with anticipation, the little boy stares at the chocolate bunny, lifts it up and bites into one of the long ears. But the sweet taste fades quickly, and the child looks again at the candy in his hand. It's hollow!

Empty, futile, hollow, nothing - the words have a ring of disappointment and disillusionment. Yet this is the life experience of many. Grasping the sweet things - possessions, experience, power, and pleasure - they find nothing inside. Life is meaningless - and they sink into despair.

Alphabet letters, vowels, and consonants formed into words, sentences, paragraphs, and books - spoken, signed , whispered, written, and printed. From friendly advice to impassioned speeches and from dusty volumes to daily tabloids, messages are sent and received, with each other trying to impact knowledge ... and wisdom.

Woven into the human fabric is the desire to learn and understand. Our mind sets us apart from animals, and we analyse, conceptualise, theorise, discuss, and debate everything from science to the supernatural. We build schools, institutes, and universities, where learned professors can teach us about the world and about life.

Knowledge is good, but a vast difference stands between "knowledge' (having the facts) and "wisdom" (applying those facts to life). We may amass knowledge, but without wisdom our knowledge is useless. We must learn how to live out what we know.

Saturated with stories of sexual escapades, secret rendezvous, and extramarital affairs, today's media teach that immorality means freedom, perversion is natural, and commitment is old-fashioned. Sex, created by God and pronounced good in Eden, has been twisted, exploited, and turned into an urgent, illicit, casual, and self-gratifying activity.

Almost 3000 years ago, king Solomon spoke of this human dilemma. The insights and applications of his message are relevant today.

Solomon was a wise and wealthy king - the wisest and wealthiest of his day - sought to find the secret to a happy life. He searched for it in wine, women, and song - and so much more. Comedians? Musicians? He could bring the most skilled before him at his whim. He immersed himself in books, gaining knowledge and wisdom, and he did not fail to learn by his observation of others. There was virtually nothing out of his reach in the physical realm. He said to himself,

"I thought in my heart, 'Come now, I will test with pleasure to find out what is good.' But that also proved meaningless. 'Laughter', I said, 'is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?' I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly - my mind still guiding with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

I undertook great projects. I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kind of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees... I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well - the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart

no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labour."(Ecclesiastes 2:1–6, 8, 10).

If possessions and wealth can buy happiness, certainly this king must have been the happiest man who ever lived. But was he? Here is his answer:

"So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. Alll of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind."

Solomon realised that wisdom alone cannot guarantee eternal life. Wisdom, riches, and personal achievement matter very little after death - and everyone must die.

Is death the ultimate equaliser of all people, no matter what they attained in life? While this appears to be true from an earthly perspective, God makes it clear that what we do here has a great impact upon our eternal reward.

As king, Solomon had everything a person could want, but here he says that 'he hated life'. What happened? His marvelous accomplishments left him sour because he pursued them as a means to personal satisfaction. Personal satisfaction, by itself, is empty because we are alone in the enjoyment we receive.

He no doubt enjoyed the accomplishments and thrills of life, but still saw that all were futile in the end. But surely it would be different if you were in King Solomon's shoes! Is this not what many think? We often hear people say that money won't buy happiness, but they conduct their lives as if it will. (part 1 - to be continued)