Page 21 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 3

ISSUE THREE | NOV/DEC

will test you with mirth; therefore same event happens to them all.
enjoy pleasure”; but surely, this So I said in my heart, “As it happens
also was vanity. I said of laughter— to the fool, It also happens to me,
“Madness!”; and of mirth, “What And why was I then more wise?”
does it accomplish?” I searched Then I said in my heart, “This also
in my heart how to gratify my flesh is vanity.”
with wine, while guiding my heart For there is no more remembrance
with wisdom, and how to lay hold of the wise than of the fool forever,
on folly, till I might see what was Since all that now is will be
good for the sons of men to do forgotten in the days to come.
under heaven all the days of their And how does a wise man die?
lives. As the fool!”
I made my works great, I built The end of the matter
myself houses, and planted myself King Solomon considered all his
vineyards. I made myself gardens pursuit for happiness and came to
and orchards, and I planted all a grand conclusion.
kinds of fruit trees in them. I made He said: ” Let us hear the
myself water pools from which conclusion of the whole matter:
to water the growing trees of the Fear God and keep His
grove. I acquired male and female commandments, For this is man’s
servants, and had servants born all. For God will bring every work
in my house. Yes, I had greater into judgment, Including every
possessions of herds and flocks secret thing, Whether good or evil.
than all who were in Jerusalem Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.
before me. I also gathered for
myself silver and gold and the My thoughts are these.
special treasures of kings and of While you go about your daily
the provinces. I acquired male activities that God has assigned
and female singers, the delights to you, be it work in the office,
of the sons of men, and musical business, government positions,
instruments of all kinds. as a stay-at-home mum, or
So I became great and excelled whatever it is, do not do it from
more than all who were before the position of the pursuit of
me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom happiness, but from the space of
remained with me. tending and keeping the eternal
Whatever my eyes desired I did not realities of God kept in your hands
keep from them. I did not withhold by God. For death to him who is
my heart from any pleasure, For anchored to eternal things is not
my heart rejoiced in all my labor; an end but a vehicle to the other
And this was my reward from all side of life. If you truly understand
my labor. this reality, you will no longer just
Then I looked on all the works that be happy, but you will become the
my hands had done And on the embodiment of the joy of the Lord.
labor in which I had toiled;
And indeed all was vanity and Think about these things and
grasping for the wind. get the wisdom required for daily
There was no profit under the sun. living, especially in the days of the
Then I turned myself to consider chase for happiness.
wisdom and madness and folly;
For what can the man do who Article, courtesy: www.saphire338.org
succeeds the king?—
Only what he has already done.
Then I saw that wisdom excels
folly As light excels darkness.
The wise man’s eyes are in
his head, But the fool walks in
darkness.
Yet I myself perceived That the

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