The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. (Ecclesiastes 7:4)
When I was still teaching youth group, I came across this verse and wrestled with trying to understand it. Why is wisdom associated with the house of mourning, and why is foolishness associated with the house of pleasure?
I realized that when I'm with my friends, and we're laughing and joking and having a good time, when we're having a blast and in what you might call a house of pleasure, I feel immortal. Nothing could go wrong, life will always be great like this, everything is happy and beautiful, we are like gods.
In the house of mourning, when we are faced with death or some other misfortune, we are directly confronted by our own mortality. We were helpless to stop it... and we have so little power in our hands do anything except to cry out to someone who can. Things can so easily go wrong, life will not always be grand, and not everything is happy and beautiful. We are mortals, weak and frail.
And that recognition of our mortality is, I think, why Ecclesiastes says wisdom is found in the house of mourning.
1 comment:
True, true. It is a little bit morbid, but sometimes, a visit to the cemetery helps me get my bearings.
Post a Comment