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A man earned his first million dollars by the time he was 30. This target met, he set a new goal to earn ten million by 40 and a hundred million by the time he hit 50. He was a good provider and generous towards his family and company staff. He worked relentlessly towards his set goal. He was also a man who loved the good things in life. Good things don’t come cheap! He acquired whatever his heart desired and lacked for nothing. Unfortunately for him, a series of health related issues left him unable to fully enjoy his acquired wealth. His wife separated from him and his son now runs his business empire. What a travesty of justice that this should happen. Yet, this is what King Solomon speaks about when he laments that God gives a man wealth, possession and honour, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires but God does not enable him to enjoy them and a stranger enjoys them instead.

Wealth, when given by God is to be enjoyed as a gift. But, when wealth becomes an idol and you crave after it, it has already mastered you and you will never have enough of it. Your appetite for more wealth can never be satisfied. The truth is that your appetite is ruined. No wonder, King Solomon had great wealth, many wives (and concubines) and children, accomplished major large scale projects, speaks from varied experience but calls everything meaningless, a vanity, a chasing after the wind.

In the end, death brings a whole new perspective to living. Life worth living comes from finding satisfaction in the things that do not decay with time and use. It comes from walking with God and enjoying His gifts and doing His work. Real and lasting satisfaction comes from fulfilling what God has made you for. It comes when we know that we enjoy the pleasure of God. Eric Liddell, the Olympic sprinter won the 200 meters bronze and 400 meters gold medals in the 1924 Paris Games put it best when he said: “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.” Eric had an eternal perspective that led him to live out his life as a missionary for Jesus in China from 1925 to his death in 1945 in an internment camp. He continued: “I have had my eyes on a different prize. You see, each one of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris, and this race ends when God gives out the medals.”