Chapter 17 
How to Enjoy Life
When life bombards you with trouble, it’s possible to find daily joy that God has hidden away in seven daily blessings. Learn to unlock those seven treasures. Learn to enjoy life in ways you may never have considered.
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In the previous chapter, we explored the peace that comes through humbling yourself before God. This peace-giving humility is so important, God gave us an entire book in the Bible devoted to showing us how to find it. Ecclesiastes unlocks the secrets of how to be happy in a painful, broken world.
The Curse & Wildcard Providence
The opening chapter of Ecclesiastes is brutally honest about the brokenness of this fallen world. So honest that it seems to go too far. 
“’Absolute futility,’ says the Teacher. ‘Absolute futility. Everything is futile’” (Ecclesiastes 1:2 HCSB).
Everything is absolutely futile? It can sure seem that way sometimes. The narrator (who calls himself “the teacher”) fills chapter one with example after example of the frustrations of life. So much of your work ends up being a waste of time (Ecclesiastes 1:3). Mankind never really makes any progress (Ecclesiastes 1:4-11). Knowledge increases, but that only brings more grief. It doesn’t solve life’s problems and it opens your eyes to heartbreaking realities (Ecclesiastes 1:12-18). What’s twisted can’t be straightened (Ecclesiastes 1:15). The world is irreparably broken.
Forty-eight times in the book the teacher calls his effort to straighten what’s crooked “futile.” And nine times he defines futile as a “chasing after the wind.” You could sooner capture a stiff breeze than straighten what’s bent in this world because it was God who bent it. 
“Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?” (Ecclesiastes 7:13).
God created the world good, but the fall of mankind and the resulting curse from God changed that (Genesis 3:14-19: Romans 8:19-21). No matter how resourceful you are, you’ll never rise above the curse. 
That’s not to say God has relinquished his control. God superintends everything through providence. But his providence is notoriously unpredictable. He allows frequent unexpected, painful events. 
This is the source of a good portion of our anxiety. In our pursuit of happiness, we chaff against the curse. We want to get on top of the uncertainties of life and gain enough control to escape the heartbreaks of this rough and tumble existence. But wildcard providence throws wrench after wrench into our best laid plans. 
Cancer, financial ruin, injustice, war, birth defects, layoffs, loss of loved ones—no amount of preparation can prevent unforeseen disasters. And no amount of mental struggle will make it all make sense. Not only can you not control it; you can’t even understand it. And the attempt to do so will only exhaust you. The teacher calls it “toil.” It’s a draining, frustrating, anxiety-producing clash against an unchangeable force. 
Getting Control of Life
In chapter two, the teacher tells the story of his attempt to get control of this renegade world. He wants to beat the curse and make his own providence. 
So he spares no expense. He runs as hard as he can after the extremes of physical pleasures, achievements, riches, greatness, and knowledge. He pours staggering sums of money, effort, intelligence, and every other resource into gaining control over circumstances and create a nice predictable, controllable happiness.
No one has ever made a more herculean effort to climb on top of hard providence, get a handle on life, and make it work like he wants. He didn’t just want to be happy. He wanted it to happen his way on his terms and in his timing.
The result? Misery.
“Therefore, I hated life … everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:17 HCSB). 
It got him nowhere. In verse 23 he says the only thing you get out of that approach is grief, sorrow, and an anxious mind. Ironically, it was his effort to attain happiness and peace that became the very cause of his unhappiness and anxiety.
Ecclesiastes: The Book of Joy
Why would God include such a morbid, pessimistic book as Ecclesiastes in holy Scripture? It’s not morbid. In fact, Ecclesiastes is a book about happiness—how to enjoy life. After the opening two chapters full of frank honesty about the impossibility of escaping the curse, the teacher provides the solution: enjoy life (Ecclesiastes 2:24).
That solution is repeated seven times in the book.
1)	“A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.” (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25).
2)	“There is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they live, and also that everyone should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all his toil, for these things are a gift from God” (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 NET).
3)	“There is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work” (Ecclesiastes 3:22).
4)	“It is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor. … Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work--this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart” (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20).
5)	“And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful” (Ecclesiastes 8:15 ESV).
6)	“Eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do ... Enjoy life with your wife … Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:7-10).
7)	However many years a man may live, let him enjoy them all … Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see” (Ecclesiastes 11:8-9).
Is it an accident that theme is repeated seven times—the number of perfection? Not likely. It’s the perfect solution to anxiety. 
Should We Seek Pleasure or Not?
At first glance, this doesn’t sound like much of a solution. “I tried to enjoy life and it ended in misery. Therefore try to enjoy life”? Isn’t that a contradiction? 
It’s not a contradiction because that’s not what he’s saying. The problem with the teacher’s approach wasn’t that he was seeking happiness and enjoyment. It was the way he went about it. He tried to attain happiness by gaining enough control to exempt himself from trouble. That ended in misery. The solution is learn to enjoy the simple pleasures God gives you in the midst of all the trouble.
If you try to reach beyond your realm of control to orchestrate your idea of a happy life, you will forfeit what’s right in front of you. Simple gifts like food, drink, work, wealth, youth, and family are loaded with goodness from God. Rather than striving to force this world to function properly, take pleasure in what God makes available every day. 
It's not easy. It might take a lot of humility to let go of your anger and accept what happened to you in the past. You can’t resist what God is doing and enjoy what God is doing at the same time. Enjoying life requires letting go of your resistance to God’s hard providence.
Enjoying God’s Love
When you read the seven passages that call us to enjoy life, it may rub you the wrong way—especially Ecclesiastes 5:19 which speaks of enjoying wealth and possessions. Is that really a Christian message—get happiness from money and earthly goods? Shouldn’t we get our joy from God, not from this world’s treasures? 
Yes, we should get all our joy from God alone. We should be happy in all God’s expressions of love. But some of those expressions involve earthly gifts. 
“Command those who are rich in this present world not to … put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17).
If we look to money or possessions themselves to provide our hope and joy, that’s evil. But if we enjoy God’s love as expressed through those gifts, that’s part of loving God.
Would a man say to his wife, “I don’t want any gifts from you. No expressions of love. I don’t want your hugs or kisses. I just want you.” That would be nonsense. Part of loving her is taking delight in her expressions of love. 
If she cooks him a meal, should he enjoy it? It depends. If he focused only on the food and not her love, so he’s using her as a personal chef, that would be demeaning to her. But if the reason he’s happy about the food is the fact that it was an expression of her love, then the more he enjoys it the more honored she feels. It’s possible to enjoy God’s gifts instead of God, but it’s also possible to enjoy God through his gifts.
Should you seek joy from food, clothes, and money? No. But you should seek joy from God through gifts like food, money, and every other gift God gives.
Let the Giver Decide
How is that done? First, by taking his gifts as they come. Suppose the husband comes home to a warm dinner his wife made for him and says, “This isn’t what I wanted!” and throws it in the trash. Clearly, he’s focused on the food, not the gesture of love behind it. You know you’re missing God’s love when you can’t take pleasure in his gifts because you wanted different gifts. Let the Giver decide how he will express his love and simply enjoy the gifts as they come.
Seek Enjoyability from God
One principle Ecclesiastes teaches us to keep our focus on God’s kindness rather than the gifts themselves is by reminding us where enjoyability comes from.
Most people think the ability to enjoy good things is automatic. It’s not. 
“That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--this is the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 3:13).
“A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25).
Nothing in this world has built-in enjoyability. That’s why you might receive immense pleasure from an activity one day and another day it leaves you flat. The ability to enjoy something comes from God, not from inside you and not from the thing itself.
Most of my life, all I ever did was thank God for the thing I was enjoying, but never for the ability to enjoy it. I would see a beautiful sunset and say, “Thank You God, for your spectacular beauty.” But I failed to realize that at that moment I was receiving two gifts, not one. I didn’t know the sensation of pleasure was a separate gift that God may or may not grant.
I thought God’s gifts were naturally enjoyable, so when I couldn’t enjoy them, I assumed something was wrong with me. If a sunrise left me unmoved, I figured it had to do with my mood or some emotional problem. 
It wasn’t until I studied Ecclesiastes that I learned that nothing in this world can make you happy unless God adds to it the gift of enjoyability. No amount of psychological manipulation will make it happen. The ability to take pleasure in God’s gifts is itself a gift that must be sought from God.
Keeping that truth in mind will help you keep your enjoyment of God’s gifts personal. Instead of falling in love with earthly treasures, your attention will remain on the one who enables you to enjoy those gifts.
This can fill your life with joy, but it will only work if you’re humble enough before God to be receptive to his plan.
Receptivity
My granddaughter was on the floor in our living room content as could be. Without warning, her mother scooped her up, carried her into the next room, put her jacket on, and headed out to the car. It was time to go home.
I saw that and thought, What must that be like for her? Can you imagine? You’re playing with a toy, and suddenly, you’re whisked away. Oh, I guess we’re going somewhere else. Now you’re in a car seat, then you’re in a shopping cart at Wal Mart, or a highchair at the dinner table, in in your crib with the lights off. Things just happen to you. Most of them you don’t understand.
A newborn doesn’t mind that a bit. She doesn’t think, Wait, do I really want to be in the kitchen right now? Or would I rather be back in the living room? Mom just takes her here and there all day and the baby thinks nothing of it.
Of course, it doesn’t take long for the child to get to the age where she might not be so compliant. “I like playing with this toy. I don’t want any changes right now.” 
“No, I don’t want to eat.” 
“I don’t want to go to bed.”
So she resists. Then what happens? She’s still going to bed or shopping or whatever mom has in mind. But the whole experience is miserable.
If she accepts what’s happening, she finds herself protected, nourished, well-rested, and cared for.
God gives us plenty that we can control in life. But there is a whole lot more that we can’t control. Wildcard providence scoops us up and whisks us into situations we never would have chosen. Our only options are futile resistance or humble acceptance. 
A couple months ago, I lost my job at age 55. Yesterday, because of an email I didn’t see because it went into my spam folder, I suffered a $6000 loss that I don’t know how I’m going to pay for. I didn’t see that coming. 
A friend of mine had flood damage in his house last year. Insurance has been giving him all kinds of headaches in getting the repairs done, and so his family has been living in a hotel for ten months, during which time their minivan broke down. They worked hard, saved money, bought insurance—took every precaution. But hard providence bulldozed it all. 
That’s how it is living in a broken world. Things don’t go according to plan, and you get blindsided by one hard knock after another. The question is, will we miss the joy that’s available to us because we insist on chaffing against what God is doing? Or will we be like the newborn who accepts being picked up and whisked into a new reality? 
Do You Really Want Control?
If you need to be in control, Christianity is the wrong religion for you. What you’re looking for is Satanism. Every Satanist I’ve ever talked to has told me the same thing. The reason they were attracted to it was the promise of power and control. Satanism promises supernatural power to do your will. You can be like God! You can have power to control circumstances, even control over people by casting spells. Satan offers power to control circumstances. Satan also offers knowledge that is hidden from the rest of mankind (Revelation 2:24). 
God offers none of that. Instead, he offers himself. He says, “You just enjoy being a creature, and I’ll be God. And I’ll be your God. I’ll function as God on your behalf. I won’t give you control. But I will give you my word that I’ll be in control.”
When it feels like your life is spinning out of control, remember, it’s only spinning out of your control. Not God’s. And is that such a bad thing? It feels like you want to be in control, but do you really? What would happen if God turned full control over to you? Without knowledge of the future, perfect wisdom, perfect love, and omnipotence, is it likely you would have good outcomes? Or a massive train wreck?
Eat Your Ice Cream
Imagine a little child who goes out with his dad for some ice cream. He gets to wondering about his future. “Dad, what will next year be like? What if I don’t enjoy third grade as much as second grade? And what about high school? Will I ever get married and have kids? How will I ever make a living? I don’t even have any skills. And why do we live in Colorado? What if I would be happier in California, or Florida? Of all the states and countries and cities, which one would be the best place for me? Would I be better off if I were growing up on a farm? …” Each question spawns three more until he works himself into a frenzy. 
His dad says, “Son, just enjoy your ice cream cone.”
It’s his father’s job to worry about where they live, what will happen with schooling, and all the rest. The child’s only task is to enjoy his cone before it melts all over the floor. It could be a wonderful moment with his dad—maybe even one he’ll remember the rest of his life. But only if he stops worrying about everything else and enjoys the moment.
If he tries to map out his college years, not only will he miss the potential pleasure of the ice cream, but his effort will be absolute futility. Nothing he does now will change anything about college. And it will rob him of the very thing he is seeking—happiness and a good life. His best bet is to focus on learning how to enjoy the second grade in Colorado. That’s the message of Ecclesiastes. Stop trying to play God and just savor your ice cream cone with your heavenly Father.
Control What You Can
This is not a call to passive indifference or an attitude that says, “I don’t care what happens. Whatever God does is fine with me.” The second sentence is beautiful but the first is awful. We should care. In matters outside your realm of responsibility, leave them to God. But within your calling, God wants you to go after it with passion and energy and ingenuity.
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
Don’t throw away hard work and effort. And don’t throw away wisdom and knowledge either. Using knowledge to rise above hard providence is futile, but knowledge and wisdom are essential tools for enjoying God’s gifts the right way. 	
“Wisdom brightens a man's face” (Ecclesiastes 8:1).
“Wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness” (Ecclesiastes 2:13).
As the saying goes, “Life is hard. It’s harder when you’re stupid.” Wisdom plays a key role in enjoying the pleasures of life. 
“The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
It’s useless to try to know the hidden things, but it’s important to search out the non-hidden things. There is much that God has placed within our reach, and we should devote our lives to searching them out like a man searching for hidden treasure (Proverbs 2:1-5). Rack your brain. Figure out how to solve problems and straighten what’s bent to the best of your ability. That’s part of the enjoyment of work—laboring diligently and getting results.
But when you reach the limits of human strength and knowledge (such as knowing people’s motives, seeing the future, or controlling outcomes), that’s when it’s time to humble yourself, recognize your role as a second grader, and simply enjoy your ice cream cone.
What About Suffering?
The anxious heart might reply, “What ice cream? My life is anything but a treat right now.” 
Each of the blessings we’re called to enjoy (eating, drinking, work, income, spouse, and youth) are tainted by the curse. In fact, they can be some of your worst anxieties. Work is a drudgery. Your income isn’t enough. Dinner was burnt. Your spouse hurts you every day. You’re getting old. What’s to enjoy?
Plenty. Your daily life is loaded with gifts that could bring you joy even while terrible things are happening to you. But there are two mistakes that turn them from joy-givers to joy-killers. In the next chapter, we’ll see how to avoid those pitfalls and turn the everyday issues of life from stress-producers to fountains of joy.

Godliness Training Exercises
1)	In Ecclesiastes 2:20 the teacher says, “I gave myself over to despair.” The literal Hebrew is “I turned aside to allow myself to despair.” Are there any areas in your life where you are tempted to do that—to stop fighting for joy and just give yourself over to feelings of depression?
2)	What is your current ice cream cone that God wants you to learn how to enjoy right now? Make a detailed list.
3)	Read through the seven passages listed at the beginning of this chapter and underline the specific gifts we are called to enjoy. How many are there? And what do they have in common? 
4)	Make it your goal this week to never enjoy anything in a way that does not increase your love for God.