Ecclesiastes is King Solomon’s confrontation with the struggles of life.  The book makes a lot of sense during the transitions of life.  Sometimes the natural transitions from child to young adult, middle aged, elderly, school to work….  Some of the transitions are thrust upon you, a sudden death, loss of health, car accident, attack by a friend, divorce…Some transitions don’t even make rational sense ~ we get depressed, afraid, lonely and you don’t even know why!  Transitions are always a time of grief, leading to great frustration, or great hope.   Here’s a cute essay: the Aging Process:

 “Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than ten years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half." You're never 36 and a half....you're four and a half going on 5.
     You get into your teens; now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16." You could be 12, but you're gonna be 16. Eventually.
Then the great day of your life; you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. You BECOME 21....Yes!!!!!
     Then you turn 30. What happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk. He TURNED; we had to throw him out. What's wrong? What changed? You BECOME 21; you TURN 30.
     Then you're PUSHING 40....stay over there. You REACH 50.
     You BECOME 21; TURN 30; You're PUSHING 40; you REACH 50; then you MAKE IT to 60.
     By then you've built up so much speed, you HIT 70. After that, it's a day by day thing. You HIT Wednesday... you HIT lunch, you HIT 4:30, you HIT 70.
      You GET INTO your 80's;. My Grandmother won't even buy green bananas. "Well, it's an investment, you know, and maybe a bad one."  [My 90 some year old Aunt has been saying for at least 20 years, “I’m down to single digits.”]
      And it doesn't end there....Into the 90's, you start going backwards. "I was JUST 92."
      Then a strange thing happens; if you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half."   Happy aging!

The transitions of life are sobering.  You are forced to think.  The transitions are an opportunity for you to emerge with maturity and strength, and above all, affirm your faith in Jesus Christ.  (notice I use transition and problem interchangeably in this message!)  

Money is overrated!  You can be happy even if you don’t have enough money!   What we say and what we think are often two different things.  Our words say the right thing, we know money doesn’t buy happiness, but the secrets of our heart so often reveal a desire for more… This morning on Facebook I saw a posting from Rhonda Hill: “Happiness is when we realize how blessed we are for what we have.”   

Ears Open, Mouth Shut.  End of sermon!  Only joking!  

What strikes me about this scripture is that the writer, King Solomon, is at war in his mind as he tries to find an elusive peace, he is depressed, confused, trying to make sense of the world.  Injustice plagues him.  A friend once observed that it seems we as humans are either way behind what God is doing, or we are way ahead of God, and most of the time, we are way ahead of God, “Come on God, catch up with me,” “I’m ready for this war in my life to end.”   Isn’t that what Solomon is doing when you read the whole of Ecclesiastes:  Come on God, I’m waiting for justice, I’m waiting for you to make sense of the world, I’m running out of patience, I knew there’d be problems when I put my faith in you, but I wasn’t expecting problems this deep, this long….hurry up God and set everything right!”  The book of Ecclesiastes puts in writing an inner voice that doubts and wonders as we impatiently wait and wait and wait for God to set everything right.