Finding Balance in Life

Finding Balance in Life
Ecclesiastes 7
“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living take it to heart.”
Is Solomon the ultimate Eeyore who brings a cloud to the party? Reading through Ecclesiastes, one might conclude that Solomon was like Eeyore in the storybooks of Winnie the Pooh. He was characterized as pessimistic, depressed, and melancholic. Eeyore was the foil to Pollyanna. In Elanor Porter’s children’s novels, Pollyanna represented a person with excessive optimism and naivety. Eeyore was the exact opposite. In the book of Ecclesiastes 7, Solomon seems to identify with Eeyore, writing that the day of one's death is better. In verses 1-14, he writes a series of proverbs that seem to paint a picture of life as one chided and bitter.  
However, as we look more closely, Solomon is not painting a picture of someone hopelessly depressed in the face of life’s struggles. Instead, he is calling upon us to take an honest assessment of life so that we might gain the proper perspective. In verses 1-4, he leads us by the hand to the funeral parlor and points us to the mourners as a reminder that life is brief and that the measurement of success in life is not found in the present but at the end of life. Death is a lesson well learned. In our confrontation with death, we gain a clear perspective of what is truly meaningful and eternal. So much of our life is spent on the pursuit of the present:  the acquisition of money, the pursuit of pleasure, and success in business. But all these things cannot prevent the one thing that matters most: the reality of death. Death is the ultimate equalizer. In death, there are no wealthy or poor, powerful or servants. All stand on equal ground and will have to give an account to God for how they lived. Death confronts us with what is important. It challenges us to assess our priorities. Are they temporal or eternal? What matters is our awareness of God and his activity. No one stands on the threshold of death and wishes that they had worked longer hours or spent more energy in the pursuit of wealth and material possessions. The greatest regret in death is the failure to live for God and obey him in life. Instead of pursuing our own agenda, we are to consider God’s activity and purpose (vs 13,18).  
When we focus upon God and live in harmony with God’s purpose, we find balance in life. Instead of seeing life as the product of arbitrary chance, we see the hand of God in both the joys and the adversities of life. This is what brings balance. Too often, we become imbalanced in how we live. We become engrossed with the pursuit of pleasure, or we become so “religious” that we fall prey to legalism and spiritual pride. One leads to hedonism, the other to self-righteousness. Both extremes lead us away from God. In verses 23-27, Solomon points out that there are few who pursuit righteousness (either men or women); therefore, we must not look to people for moral truth we must look to God.
Wisdom instead comes by living a life of balance in which we enjoy the blessings of God and live in obedience to him. We realize that we are still marred by sin and therefore must continually seek God’s grace, cleansing, and forgiveness. We recognize that the only person who is righteous is God, and he is the one whom we must obey rather than people. Balance in life comes by realizing that death lurks around the corner and only what is eternal is truly important.