The movie Antz begins with an ant named Z talking to his therapist. Take a look. (Show Antz (1998)—You Are Insignificant scene).
All my life I've lived and worked in the big city…. I always tell myself there has got to be something better out there. Maybe I, maybe I think too much. I think everything must go back to the fact that I had a very anxious childhood. My mother never had time for me. When you're the middle child in a family of 5 million, you don't get any attention. I mean, how is it possible? I've always had these abandonment issues, which plagued me. My father was basically a drone, like I've said. The guy flew away when I was just a larva. And, my job, don't get me started on it because it really annoys me. I was not cut out to be a worker. I, I feel physically inadequate. My whole life I've never been able to lift more than ten times my own bodyweight. And, and, when you get down to it, handling dirt is not my idea of a rewarding career.… I mean, what is it, I'm supposed to do everything for the colony? What about my needs? What about me? I mean I've got to believe there's some place out there that's better than this. Otherwise, I'll just curl up into a larva position and weep. The whole system makes me feel … insignificant.
The therapist responds, "Excellent! You've made a real breakthrough!"
Z says, "I have?"
"Yes, Z. You are insignificant!" replies the therapist (Antz, Dreamworks, 1998, written by Todd Alcott, Chris and Paul Weitz, directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson V; www.PreachingToday.com).
After writing about love in the Song of Solomon and life in the book of Proverbs, King Solomon in his old age finally discovers that he is insignificant. He was the most powerful man in all the earth at the time. He was the wisest man that ever lived. He had achieved great fame. But when he came to the end of his life, he looked back on it all and concluded, “All is vanity.” Life is meaningless. There is no lasting significance to anything anyone does “under the sun.”
So how does a person find significance in life? How does a person find purpose and meaning in a world devoid of purpose? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ecclesiastes 1, Ecclesiastes 1, where Solomon begins talking about finding significance in an insignificant existence.
Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity (ESV).
That’s the thesis of this book, which contains five sermons. That’s why Solomon calls himself “the preacher” here. He stands before his audience with a significant message about the insignificance of life.
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
Literally, all is but a breath or vapor. There is no substance to anything anyone does. There is no lasting value or significance.
A few years ago (2016), the New Scientist magazine attempted to answer the question, “What is the meaning of life?” The problem is they tried to answer the question from a strictly scientific point of view, which led them to the harsh answer, “Life has no meaning.
Graham Lawton, the author of the article, wrote, “Your life may feel like a big deal to you, but it’s actually a random blip of matter and energy in an uncaring and impersonal universe. When it ends, a few people will remember you for a while, but they will die too. Even if you make the history books, your contribution will soon be forgotten. Humans will go extinct; Earth and the sun will be destroyed. Eventually the universe itself will end. Against this appalling reality, how can a human life have any real meaning?” (Graham Lawton, “What Is the Meaning of Life?” New Scientist, 9-3-16; www.PreachingToday.com)
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
Solomon uses the word “vanity” five times in this verse and 28 times throughout the book. Sadly, after living his life with 100’s of achievements, Solomon concludes that it was all for nothing.
Then he asks the key question of the book.
Ecclesiastes 1:3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? (ESV)
Literally, after all the hard, painful work, what is left over? What remains of lasting value? And the answer is “Nothing.” There is no profit when you strive to find significance “under the sun.”
Solomon uses the phrase, “under the sun,” 30 times in this book to describe merely an earthly perspective of life without God. You see, when you exclude God from your life, you remove all meaning to life. When you live your life merely under the sun, you limit your perspective only to this world, which contains nothing to satisfy you ultimately.
Peggy Noonan put it this way. She said, “I think we have lost the old knowledge that happiness is overrated—that, in a way, life is overrated. We have lost somehow a sense of mystery—about us, our purpose, our meaning, our role. Our ancestors believed in two worlds, and understood this to be the solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short one. We are the first generation of man that actually expected to find happiness here on earth, and our search for it has caused such unhappiness. The reason: if you do not believe in another, higher world, if you believe only in the flat material world around you, if you believe that this is your only chance at happiness—if that is what you believe, then you are more than disappointed when the world does not give you a good measure of its riches, you are in despair (Peggy Noonan “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,” Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 11; www.PreachingToday.com).
You are in despair when you strive to find significance only in this world, only “under the sun.”
So you have to look above the sun to find significance in an otherwise insignificant life.You have to look into heaven. You have to look into eternity to see life from God’s perspective. It’s the only way you’ll find any real meaning in life.
Now, that’s what Solomon does in the book of Ecclesiastes. He preaches five sermons (1:12—3:15; 3:16—5:20; 6:1—8:15; 8:16—9:10; 9:11—12:8), each of which describes the vanity of life under the sun. But each also describes the enjoyment of life, despite its vanity, when you bring God into your life.
Solomon repeats the idea, “eat, drink, and enjoy” seven times throughout the book (2:24-25; 3:12-13; 3:22; 5:18-19; 8:15; 9:7-9; 11:7-9), making it clear that no one can enjoy life without God (2:25). Therefore, Solomon says at the end of the book, “Fear God and keep His commandments” (12:13).
So, if you want to find significance in an otherwise insignificant life, invite God into your life. Look to the Lord. Look above the sun way beyond this world.
Look beyond the endless cycles of this world. Look beyond the merry-go-round existence of life on this earth. Get off the hamster wheel of your earthly reality.
Ecclesiastes 1:4-7 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again (ESV).
Everything goes in circles without any progress. Generations come and go. The sun rises and sets. The wind blows south and then north. The water runs into the sea and returns to the stream from which it came. Everything is one endless cycle, going nowhere. So you have to look beyond this world to find any purpose or significance to life.
When Reuben Klamer introduced the Game of Life in 1960, the goal was to accumulate the most money. The way there was simple: go to college, get a job, buy insurance, and save for retirement to arrive at Millionaire Mansion and avoid the poor house.
However, over time, the designers at Hasbro realized the game poorly reflected consumers’ changing life goals. So they gave it a big update in 2007, allowing players to score points for virtuous deeds like saving an endangered species, opening a health-food chain, and recycling. And instead of starting the game at point A and finishing at point Z, there is no fixed path: You decide how you want to spend your time.
Jill Lepore wrote in The New Yorker that the redesign teams had a hard time addressing the fundamental criticism of the game — that the only way to reward a player for virtuous acts was with money: “Save an Endangered Species: Collect $200,000. Solution to Pollution: $250,000. Open Health-Food Chain: $100,000.”
So, the company’s designers in their 2007 overhaul, which they called the Game of Life: Twists & Turns, took away a fixed path to success. Instead, they provided multiple ways to start out in life — but nowhere to finish. Ms. Lepore wrote, “This is actually the game’s selling point; it has no goal… Life is… aimless” (Jill Lepore, “The Meaning of Life,” The New Yorker, 5-14-07; www.PreachingToday.com).
Is that the best the designers could envision? Sure it is if you look at life “under the sun,” if you exclude God from your world. Without God, life has no goal. Without God, life is meaningless. So, if you want to find significance in an otherwise insignificant life, look beyond this world; look beyond its endless cycles.
More than that, look beyond the weariness of this world. Look beyond the exhaustion and fatigue of life on earth. Look beyond the disillusionment of your earthly existence.
Ecclesiastes 1:8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing (ESV).
The senses are never satisfied, and a man wears himself out trying to find satisfaction. Solomon, in his old age, has concluded that every pursuit is full of weariness. People expend a weary, wasted existence when they live their lives under the sun. They just burn themselves out in the pursuit of satisfaction without God.
There is an old story about a mother who walks in on her six-year-old son and finds him sobbing.
“What's the matter?” she asks.
“I've just figured out how to tie my shoes,” he replies.
“Well, honey,” she says, “that's wonderful. You're growing up, but why are you crying?”
“Because," he says, “now I'll have to do it every day for the rest of my life” (John Ortberg, Leadership, Vol. 14, no. 3; www.PreachingToday.com).
The thought of that life-long task just overwhelmed him! But that is life under the sun—it’s a weary existence.
Just a few years ago (2019), A. C. Shelton in the New York Times wrote about the “Arrival Fallacy.” It’s the illusion that once you make it, once you attain your goal, you will reach lasting happiness. To be sure, there is a wonderful feeling of accomplishment, but when you come down from that high, reality starts to sink in.
Psychologist Dr. Ben-Shahar said Arrival Fallacy is the reason some Hollywood stars struggle with mental health issues and substance abuse later in life:
These individuals start out unhappy, but they say to themselves, “It’s O.K. because when I make it, then I’ll be happy.” But then they make it, and while they may feel briefly fulfilled, the feeling doesn’t last. This time, they’re unhappy, but more than that, they’re unhappy without hope. Because before they lived under the illusion—well, the false hope—that once they make it, then they’ll be happy.
The problem is that achievement doesn’t equal happiness over the long term (A.C. Shelton, “You Accomplished Something Great. So Now What?” The New York Times, 5-28-19; www.PreachingToday.com).
The eye is not satisfied with seeing—no matter how much it sees. And the ear is not filled with hearing—no matter how much flattery it hears. Life under the sun is a weary pursuit of that which never satisfies in the end.
Chuck Colson used to talk about the golfers that came to his hometown of Naples, Florida. Most were retired CEOs of major corporations. They moved to the area to enjoy its 27 golf courses, miles of sparkling beach, and the best country clubs.
Colson says, “I watch these guys; they're powerful people. They have this New York look on their face; they're determined. But now, all of a sudden, they start measuring their lives by how many golf games they can get in.”
Colson would often ask them, “Do you really want to live your life counting up the number of times you chase that little white ball around those greens?”
“And they kind of chuckle,” Colson says, “but it's a nervous chuckle, because in six months they've realized how banal their lives are, and they've got beautiful homes—castles—and when they get bored with that, they build a bigger castle, and they're miserable” (Eric Metaxas, Socrates in the City, Dutton, 2011, pp. 172-3; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s life under the sun. That’s life without God. So, if you want to find significance in an otherwise insignificant life, look beyond this world; look beyond its endless cycles; look beyond its weariness.
More than that, look beyond the sameness of everything this world. Look beyond the monotony. Look beyond the repetitiveness of life under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us (ESV).
Despite all the innovation, the world stays the same. People don’t really change.
Author and publisher, Leonard Woolf, after a lifetime of work, came to the same conclusion. He says, “I see clearly that I have achieved practically nothing. The world today and the history of the human anthill during the past five to seven years would be exactly the same if I had played Ping-Pong instead of sitting on committees and writing books and memoranda. I have therefore to make a rather ignominious confession that I have in a long life ground through between 150,000 and 200,000 hours of perfectly useless work” (Wireless Age, Sept-Nov 1998, 35; www.PreachingToday.com).
You think your work will make any real difference in the world. Not really, because everything stays the same. Through all the ages that have come and gone, there is nothing new UNDER THE SUN.
So look BEYOND THE SUN if you want to find any significance in an otherwise insignificant life. Look beyond this world. Look beyond its endless cycles. Look beyond its weariness. Look beyond its sameness.
And finally, look beyond the forgetfulness of this world. Look beyond its amnesia. Look beyond its absent-mindedness.
Ecclesiastes 1:11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after (ESV).
No one will remember you a hundred years from now. Think about it. How many of you remember the names of your 2 parents? The names of your 4 grandparents? The names of your 8 great-grandparents? How about the names of your 16 great-great-grandparents? Very few people remember the names of their own family members just three or four generations ago. Do you think your descendants will remember you? The fact is they will quickly forget who you are, along with all your accomplishments.
Ricardo Lockette rose up the ranks of pro football and eventually helped the Seattle Seahawks win the Super Bowl in 2014. But on November 1, 2015, the wide receiver and special teams player, was blindsided with a vicious hit and was left sprawled on the ground in front of 90,000 fans. A year after the hit that nearly broke his neck and took his life, Lockette reflected:
It's crazy what matters to you when you're in that situation. Cars, jewelry, big houses, Super Bowls? It all seems so meaningless. I came up from nothing. Undrafted, practice squad, released a bunch of times, then I made it to three Super Bowls in a row. I have a saying, kind of like a mantra, "A hundred dollars and a dream." I used to want a black Lamborghini and a seven-room house. That's what I dreamed about. Now, all of a sudden, I can't move. And the only thing that mattered to me in the entire world was being able to see my family again, to hold my kids in my arms.
After surgery to repair my damaged vertebrae and a few weeks of serious rehabilitation, I was walking around just fine, and we were playing basketball again. But a few months later, in early May, I made the decision to retire from football at age 29. [My head coach Pete] Carroll used to preach to us all the time: "You live in a temporary fairy tale." Your fans are temporary. Your coaches are temporary. Your teammates, as much as they love you, are temporary. The big houses you live in are temporary. You can enjoy all that stuff, but it's not what will bring you happiness.
When I was laying motionless on that turf in Dallas, I was completely dependent upon the help of others. It was the exact opposite of the mindset I had from the moment I got to Seahawks camp as a rookie: You're a rock star. You're a leader. You're the alpha. This is all yours for the taking. Then, in one second, you're helpless (Ricardo Lockette, "Am I About to Die?" The Player's Tribune, 7-5-16; www.PreachingToday.com).
And I might add, “You’re soon forgotten?” How many of you even remember Ricardo Lockette’s name? He helped his team win the Super Bowl just nine years ago and played in the previous two Super Bowls before that? Sure, we remember Patrick Mahomes MVP of this year’s Super Bowl in 2023. But will we remember him nine years from now in 2032? Only sports trivia enthusiasts will remember him. The rest of us will probably forget him altogether.
But that’s the nature of life under the sun. So if you want to find any significance in an otherwise insignificant life, look above the sun. Look beyond this world. Look beyond its endless cycles. Look beyond its weariness. Look beyond its sameness. Look beyond its forgetfulness. Look beyond this world to the Lord, who alone gives meaning to life.
Trust Christ with your life. Trust the One who died for you and rose again. Commit your life to Him, who will make even a cup of cold water eternally significant if you give it in His name (Matthew 10:42).
