Waking up in the morning is hard. You’re tired. You stayed up all night finishing an essay. You have an exam today. And work this afternoon. Quite a lot to be joyful for right? Ha, that’s not what comes to mind. On the contrary, the complaints and negativity start to take over and continue until you reach your bed that evening. But unfortunately, that dreadfully hard wake up call comes again the next day. And the next. And the next…

So my question is where do you find joy? What can we do to be content in our monotonous lives? A few things might pop into your head.

Some people find joy in being with their friends. Just going out, having a good time and catching up! Others find it in stuff. Clothes, Purses, Cars; Louis Vuitton,  Michael Kors, Kendra Scott. And even others in social media: “how many followers do I have,” “how many likes did I get”…So, what’s the problem? If it makes them happy, who cares right?

This constant search for joy, contentment, and meaning, though a big part of our generation, is also a topic Solomon focus’s on in Ecclesiastes 2.

“I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem…So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun…”

Now, it is important to know that Solomon was a king that God had blessed with insurmountable wealth and wisdom. In all of this, he searched for joy in his life: from drinking, to holding possessions and becoming the greatest man in Jerusalem. And yet with ALL of this, he could not find joy, and therefore felt that his desires and his accomplishments were meaningless and “there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”

Just to put it in perspective, if SOLOMON, a king of his greatness, could not find joy in earthly things, how do WE so often expect to?

And that is where our worldly things can become a problem: when we try to find meaning and purpose in them. Because at some point, it just will not suffice. But, if we take a step back, and look at the BIG picture we realize our comfort and joy is actually a much simpler discovery than we make it.

Solomon concludes his chapter with “for apart from him (God) who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”

And there ya go. Who can find pleasure and happiness and joy without God? Apart from Him, our lives are meaningless and we will never reach the full satisfaction our hearts desire. We are fearfully and wonderfully made IN HIS IMAGE, so of course we feel lost without Him. He is where we find joy! Because everything else in this world is fleeting and fickle, changing from day to day. And yet, even as I am typing this and publicly recognizing God as my source of joy, I turn to other things, other people, and other fulfillments that just will NOT satisfy.

Trust and reliance on God is a decision we must make every day.

We must simply look to our heavenly Father and what he sacrificed for us and find joy in His Son, the everlasting, forever reliable Savior of the World. Now THAT is something to have confidence in.