Head & Heart

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV

“Fear God keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”  Ecclesiastes 12:13 ESV

I’ve been reading Ecclesiastes during my mornings recently and it’s been very interesting. There’s this balance between your head and your heart that has to be carefully curated constantly as a Christ follower, but also as a human. A different way to put it is there are objective and subjective parts of the world we interact with on a daily basis. These two very important parts of your being both offer such a valuable resource on this journey we call life yet so often they seem to be at odds with each other. Your heart tells you one thing and your head another. This is something that all humans struggle with but the book of Ecclesiastes seems to speak to that struggle in a very helpful way. 

Personally, this is a concept I’ve thought about a lot. Both have great value of course but I find that I tend to lean towards one or the other most of the time without being able to balance them in a way I should. If I were to completely surrender myself to objective thought and experience and totally shun all that is not black and white I don’t believe that I would be able to enjoy life and all that God created. For without pain there is also no happiness. On the other side of the spectrum, if I were to fully embrace subjectivity and let myself only be governed by my emotions and urges, there would be little order to my life and without order I don’t grow or mature like I should. I would become aimless and disheveled. There is a balance somewhere that many have tried to find yet few do. In this search for balance I found truth in the one place that always has it, the Bible.

The author of Ecclesiastes was Solomon son of King David who is a direct descendant to Jesus Christ himself. Solomon was given by God the incredible opportunity to have whatever he asked of God. Solomon in his wisdom he already had asked for more of it. This pleased the Lord and Solomon was given wisdom and many other blessings throughout his life. He is considered to be the wisest person who ever lived and one of the richest as well. Not too shabby. So this book of Ecclesiastes was written by a man who had an insane amount of money and wisdom. This is a man who, by all reasonable logic would be very tied to the objective part of his personality and possibly stray from subjectivity and his emotional inputs. That is not the case however, a significant portion of this book is talking of emotional questions and how to deal with the pain of existence for lack of a better term. Solomon wrote this book talking of his struggles with wisdom and emotion. He wrote the book of Proverbs which is considered to be one of the wisest books in the Bible. He also wrote Song of Songs which is basically a love letter to his betrothed. He spans both sides of the spectrum without apology showing the dichotomy of man as well as the struggles both sides bring.

Solomon was able to fully indulge himself in earthly pleasures as a mighty king and also able to learn and understand much because of his gift from God. However, he came to the conclusion that both are fully meaningless without being close to the one who gave him wisdom. Throughout this book he tries to understand his purpose and the reason he is able to understand what he does and live the way he does. At times it honestly feels like he might be depressed or throwing a fit. He talks of the vanity of living wisely, the vanity of wealth, honor, among other things. He came to the conclusion that takes many of us our entire lives to fully understand which is: without God there is no meaning to this life we live. All our struggles and accomplishments fail to give us the hope, meaning, and peace that Jesus Christ gives us on a daily basis. So to bring this rant back full circle. The two different aspects of humanity, objectivity and subjectivity, are both very important parts of our lives and bring value to us. Proverbs shows us the value of living wisely and Song of Songs shows us the beauty of love and emotion. But Ecclesiastes shows us how without God both avenues fail to bring purpose to our lives that we as humans so desperately want. So at the end of the day choose God before you choose anything else.