What Makes a Good Life? What Solomon Teaches Us About Chasing More
We live in a culture that constantly tells us we need more. More money, more success, more followers, more experiences. But what if "more" has been making promises it was never capable of keeping? The book of Ecclesiastes, written by one of the most successful people who ever lived, gives us a brutally honest answer to one of life's biggest questions: what actually makes life worth living?
Why Ecclesiastes Is One of the Most Relevant Books for Today
Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon, a king who had everything. He wasn't someone looking up at success from the outside. He was someone looking back on it after having lived it fully.
There was no one in history more qualified to answer the question of what makes life worth living. Solomon had more wealth, more accomplishments, more pleasures, and more achievements than anyone around him. And then he sat down and wrote about what all of it actually meant.
That is what makes this book so powerful. It is not theory. It is testimony.
What Did Solomon Actually Achieve?
In Ecclesiastes chapter 2, Solomon lays it all out. He writes about building houses, planting vineyards, creating gardens and parks, accumulating silver and gold, owning livestock, and experiencing every pleasure imaginable. He says plainly that anything he wanted, he got. He denied himself nothing.
If Solomon were alive today, his social media would have millions of followers. People would be buying his books, listening to his podcasts, and trying to copy his morning routine.
And then he tells us what it all added up to.
What Was Solomon's Conclusion After Achieving Everything?
"When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 2:11
He did not say he did not get enough. He said he got everything he wanted, and it still was not enough.
Solomon uses the phrase "under the sun" repeatedly throughout Ecclesiastes. He is describing life as most people experience it. Life measured only by what we can see, earn, build, and control. And his conclusion is that a life lived only from that perspective will always leave you empty.
What Is the Hedonic Treadmill and Why Does It Matter?
Psychologists have a name for what Solomon described thousands of years ago. It is called the Hedonic Treadmill. The idea is simple. You get the promotion and you are thrilled. A few months later, it is just a job. You buy the dream car. Six months later, it is just your car. You move into the house you always wanted, and eventually it is just where you pay your mortgage.
We adapt quickly. The excitement fades. And then we convince ourselves we just need the next thing.
Solomon discovered this long before psychology gave it a name. He called it chasing the wind. You can feel the wind. You know it is there. But you can never actually possess it.
Why Do We Keep Moving the Finish Line?
Think about how this plays out across a lifetime. In high school, you think if you could just graduate. Then you graduate. Then it is if you could just get into college. Then a good job. Then marriage. Then a house. Then kids. Then retirement.
Every season tells us happiness is just over there. And then we get there, and somehow happiness moved again.
Solomon says he has been to every finish line. They all moved. He is not saying this to discourage ambition. He is saying it to save us decades of disappointment.
Does God Want Us to Stop Dreaming and Building?
This is an important question, and the answer is no. Ecclesiastes is not anti-enjoyment. It is not saying money is bad, or that owning nice things is wrong, or that ambition is the enemy.
God created vineyards. He created music, laughter, food, celebration, and work. He wants us to enjoy the gifts He has placed in our lives. In fact, later in Ecclesiastes, Solomon says exactly that.
"There is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God's hand." - Ecclesiastes 2:24
The problem was never what Solomon had. The problem was what he expected those things to do for him.
What Happens When We Ask God's Gifts to Replace God?
Here is the core issue Ecclesiastes is exposing. Anything becomes dangerous when we ask it to do what only God can do.
A relationship cannot tell you who you are. Only God can do that.
Money cannot make you truly secure. Only God can do that.
Success cannot give your life real meaning. Only God can do that.
Your career cannot be your identity. Only God can tell you who you are.
When we expect our spouse to save us, we will eventually resent our spouse. When we expect money to complete us, we will resent the money. When we expect a business or a ministry to define us, we will resent it. Because we have asked every gift to carry the weight of being God, and no gift was ever built to hold that weight.
The Difference Between Healthy Ambition and Misplaced Dependence
Ambition is not the enemy. Misplaced dependence is. There is a real difference between the two.
Healthy ambition says: God has given me gifts and I will steward them well. Misplaced dependence says: I need this in order to be okay.
One worships God. The other quietly asks God's gifts to replace Him.
The goal is not to build a smaller life. The goal is to build a life that is impossible without God. To dream with open hands. To build businesses, build marriages, build homes, travel, laugh, and plant vineyards if you want to. But never ask those gifts to carry the weight of your identity, your security, or your ultimate joy. Because only the Giver can sustain that kind of weight.
What Does Jesus Say About Staying Hungry?
There is a hunger inside every human being that success will never satisfy. Jesus addressed this directly.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." - Matthew 5:6
Jesus did not say blessed are those who hunger for more. He said blessed are those who hunger for righteousness. Because He knows what Solomon discovered. Your soul was created for an appetite that only God can satisfy.
Stay hungry. But stay hungry for the right things. Stay hungry to know God. Stay hungry to grow. Stay hungry to become more like Jesus. Stay hungry to build what God has called you to build. Stay hungry for His presence and for a deeper dependence on Him.
What Is the Real Definition of the Good Life?
The vineyard did not change. The gardener did. The business did not change. The person who owned it did. The house did not change. The homeowner did.
When God is at the center, the gifts become better, not worse. Coffee is better when it does not have the responsibility to save you. A home is better when it does not define you. Marriage is better when your spouse is not expected to be your Savior.
The good life is not found when you finally get everything. The good life begins when you realize everything good was always pointing you back to God.
Life Application
This week, take an honest look at what you are expecting to satisfy you that was never designed to. You likely already know the answer. It might be a goal you are chasing, a relationship you are leaning on too heavily, a financial milestone, or a level of recognition you are waiting for before you feel like enough.
The challenge is this: loosen your grip. You do not have to give up your dreams. But try praying a dangerous prayer this week. Ask God to remove anything that has quietly taken His place in your life, anything you are depending on more than you are depending on Him.
Ask yourself these questions as you go through your week:
What am I expecting to satisfy me that was never designed to?
If my biggest goal never happened, would God still be enough for me?
Am I building a life that requires God, or a life I could manage on my own?
What gift in my life have I started treating like a God?
The gifts are beautiful. But they are too small to carry the weight of your soul. Only the Giver can do that.
