I have to give my husband credit for the focus on Solomon. He is a great admirer of the philosopher king who had many wives, lots of money, and a rather dark outlook on life. (I tell Doug that he, too, would still be unsatisfied if he had lots of money and many wives, despite what he might think!)
A while back, we led a small group at our church that studied the book of Ecclesiastes, purportedly written by King Solomon. Both of us appreciated the fresh (though very old) take this book has on life. Nothing new under the sun. My interpretation of this is not that nothing is worthwhile, but that we should not expect from things what they cannot give. Doug and I both thought that Solomon had a fairly realistic and well reasoned view of life, not a God-challenged one.
Earlier this summer Doug returned home from church frustrated (I had to miss church that morning). Our pastor, Ed, had preached about Ecclesiastes and concluded that Solomon was off track. His problem was that he had forgotten God. If he had gotten back to a focus on serving God, he would not have been disillusioned with so many things in life. Money and power had distracted him from what was truly satisfying. Doug and I both agreed that we don't think Solomon was off track in the first place. Why should following God mean that you have a rosy view of everything? We deemed Ed's take as a rare cave-in to sappy happy Christiandom. (Sorry, Ed -- we usually think you're right on target, but I've chosen one of our few disagreements with you to broadcast over the web!) Thinking back, all of the sermons I've ever heard on Ecclesiastes have sided with Ed.
After this message, Doug renewed his vow to never, ever give in to the sappy happy pressure in the Christian world. And I renewed my vow to make a concerted effort to dig deeper into all the things about my faith that I suspect might have seeped in from the same place the sappy happy came from. Solomon was known for his wisdom and he had no need for sappy happy. So that's why this blog is named for him.
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