There are two words in Ecclesiastes 2:2 that describe living for pleasure without thought for God. The first word, laughter, means "superficial gaiety," which is called "madness."

I observed firsthand the truth of those words when I was 16. I worked in a meat market with some hard-drinking men. They were destroying their health and enduring needless pain. On Monday they would come in sick, miserable, and unable to do their job efficiently. But when Saturday night rolled around, they would repeat the previous week's insanity.

A few years later I saw illustrated the truth of the second word, mirth. It means "thoughtful pleasure." An elderly man had carefully built a successful business and had more money than he could spend. He told me he was unhappy and felt unloved by his heirs. He dreaded dying. His life of "thoughtful pleasure" had left him empty, cynical, and closed to the gospel.

After trying every form of pleasure-seeking, Solomon concluded that it is "vanity and grasping for the wind" (v.11). It's not sinful to enjoy life, but the aftermath of living only for pleasure is emptiness.

Have you left God out of your life? Trust Christ as your Savior and experience life's greatest pleasures.  — Herbert Vander Lugt