Finally emaciated and hooked on drugs he died aged 67.
Like Solomon, Howard Hughes had all the pleasure the world had to offer, but it gave him no meaning.
Pleasure feels good while it happens.
Indeed God created us with the capacity for pleasure and gave us the things to satisfy that capacity.
But pleasure is not an end in itself -- it does not provide a meaning for life.
To live a life purely in pursuit of pleasure is empty and meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
And the tragedy is, people often don't realise that until the end of their lives.
Having spent their life in pursuit off pleasure they realise that it has amounted to nothing
and there is nothing they can do about it.
They discover that the promises of pure pleasure were empty.
But having discovered the meaningless of pleasure, Solomon experimented
with something else -- the pursuit of wisdom.
Ecclesiastes 2:12-16: "Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly.
What more can the king's successor do than what has already been done?
I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.
The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.
Then I thought in my heart, 'The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?' I said in my heart, 'This too is meaningless.'
For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise man too must die!"
Some people believe the ultimate meaning in life lies in knowledge.
Some throw themselves into the pursuit of a particular form of knowledge -- anything from
computers or model trains will do.
Many eastern religions focus on self discovery.
That the meaning of life is to reach a full understanding and hence control of yourself.
But Solomon's realisation was that no matter how much knowledge one gained of the world
or oneself it was all extinguished when we die.
Verse 14: "The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both."
Again there is nothing wrong with wisdom.
It is certainly better to be wise than foolish.
But it does not in itself give meaning to life.
If knowledge promises to give ultimate meaning in life it is an empty promise.
The next thing Solomon tried was to find meaning in his work.
Ecclesiastes 2:18-23: "I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun because I must
leave them to the one who comes after me.
And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?
Yet, he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun.
This too is meaningless.
So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.
For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave
all he owns to someone who has not worked for it.
This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.
What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?
All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless."
It would seem Solomon had a strong work ethic.
He poured himself into his work.
He worked long hours at his wisdom and his building projects, at his administration of the kingdom.
He took pride in his work and took it very seriously.
And you meet many people like that today.
Some people place enormous value on hard work -- it is their meaning for life.
One young man said, "I remember one old timer I met who all he ever talked about was how hard he worked.
I would say about 95% of his conversation was about how good he was at his work
and how hard he used to work at it and how little use I was because I could not work all day."
That was an extreme case, but I am sure we all know people for whom their work is the center
of their lives.
It is their source of meaning.
They cast aside all else for is sake.
But as Solomon concluded, toil is meaningless too because all the benefits of it will pass on
to some one else.
" For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave
all he owns to someone who has not worked for it.
This too is meaningless and a great misfortune."
The greatest engineer in the world ultimately ends up on his death bed, and then all the bridges
he has built to do not mean a thing. He is simply a man facing death.
Again, this is not to say there is anything wrong with hard work.
But it is not an end in itself.
Work does not give us an ultimate meaning in life.
Pleasure, knowledge and hard work, fine things in themselves, but unable to give meaning to life.
They are in themselves meaningless.
They offer only empty promises.
What then can give meaning?
Solomon explains in Ecclesiastes 2:24-26: "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?
To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness,
but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth
to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind."
Our meaning comes from our relationship with God.
Because God is eternal, through our relationship with him we escape
the meaninglessness of life under the sun.
We are like an electric appliance, which unless plugged in might look good,
but is of absolutely no use.
But when plugged in to the electricity become useful and meaningful.
And the great part is that when we plug into God those meaningless things,
which are a substitute for Him take on a whole new perspective.
As verse 26 says, "To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness"
We no longer have to pursue those things because He gives them to us.
Sermon adapted!
