Life Under the Sun

The phrase under the sun occurs 26 times in Ecclesiastes and refers to the span of life lived on earth from our birth until our death.

What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 1:3

Some meanings of the word toil are: Exhausting physical labor, to get or accomplish with great effort, drudgery, grind and strive. I think we all identify with these words in relation to our work and jobs. Is there purpose in our labor/toil that we do on earth? It takes a lot of effort and is tiring, but we must do it all our lives in order to live and eat.

Because of the original sin, one of the reasons for living is to work for the food we need to live. We are to populate the earth, so we must raise the families God gives us. He also gives us the ability to work. We have a mind that knows how to grow and harvest food, He provides the sun and rain and He gives us strong bodies and the ability to work hard.

Today though, we want our work to have meaning, beyond providing for our family. Our culture today is different. Because we have more than we actually need to live on (excess), our reason for living has expanded beyond caring for basic needs. We have enough to buy bigger houses and cars. We can take luxurious vacations, provide our kids with all kinds of toys, send them to private schools, give them cars, wear the best clothes. We have more time to think and dream about what we want next. We see new and better things all the time, increasing our desire to work harder, to make more so we can have more. The more we have the more we want.

Can you begin to see a cycle that happens when our desire for more can influence how much we need to work. Is it possible to live a life of less stress by being content with fewer things? It is possible to create a more balanced relationship between the amount of toil we need to live and the toil needed to supply the excess that we want.