The Zero Sum Game
“All is vanity” Ecclesiastes 1:2
Vanity – The Bible is the most realistic book about life that has ever been written. In this verse, it tells us that sometime during your earthly sojourn, you will arrive at the zero sum. That’s when you add up all the things that consume our attention, demand our energy, focus our dreams and expend our efforts only to discover that it doesn’t bring fulfillment. Human life has a basic emptiness built into it. When Solomon looked at the whole array of human endeavor he saw its ultimate futility. As my college history professor used to remind us, “In the end we’re all dead”. All the frustration, all the triumph, all the worry and all the gain trickles down to the grave. A hundred years from now, almost everything that seemed to matter so much to us today will scarcely be remembered. On the surface of the earth, life just doesn’t seem to count for much.
The critical scene in the movie Troy is not in the midst of battle. It is a brief conversation between Achilles and a servant boy. The boy says that he doesn’t want to go to war because he is afraid. Achilles answers, “Yes you are. And that is why no one will remember your name.” Achilles should have had that conversation with Solomon. In the final analysis, even Achilles’ death will mean nothing.
The Hebrew word hebel is used thirty-six times in Ecclesiastes. Its primary meaning is wind or breath and it is expanded to mean worthless or meaningless, like a fleeting breath. In Ecclesiastes this word is used with three different nuances, each one important. Solomon’s first usage is to describe the lack of lasting significance from work. On deepest reflection, in spite of all our efforts, work is more or less a self-defeating wheel. There is always more to do and what is done is never quite enough to completely satisfy. Solomon looks far down the path and sees that if I stake my ultimate significance of my work, I will come up short. What I do will never be enough to fill that emptiness inside no matter how wonderful or successful I may be. What I do may occupy my thoughts and my time, but in the end, when I go to the grave, all that I have done will not go with me. I had better be more than my work.
So much of today’s culture subscribes to the work-identity syndrome. Not just career paths but even our leisure activities, our life missions and our ministries become elements in the zero-sum game of what we do. Vanity, says Solomon. What about you? Have you looked down the path and seen the gravestone? Are you defined by your emptiness and the fixation to fill it? Are you working for your life? Or is there something more?
