Ecclesiastes 4:6
“Better a handful with quietness than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind.”
Ecclesiastes 4:6, without mentioning a specific worker that Solomon may have observed, presents us with a more balanced approach that we should strive for. Putting it simply, Solomon calls for contentment. One commentator calls this a picture of an “integrated” person; today, we might call them “balanced.” This person is productive in their labors, but they also carves out time for other important activities. They guard against being caught up in the rat race, finding time to balance their life through sharing themselves with their family and other activities for their well-being.
Americans spend more time working than any other people in the industrialized world. We are part of an entire nation caught up in “getting” what we refer to as “the good life.” When a person’s heart is consumed with constant “doing” or “working,” chasing after whatever they want out of life, true quietness is ignored, and life gradually becomes a battle to ensure that all of their time is spent simply in “activity.” But God says so simply what our aim should be: “Now godliness with contentment is great gain” (I Timothy 6:6). This is a choice we are free to make. Solomon is teaching that, to have truly good work habits, a person must also make the choices to exercise a measure of contentment to balance life.
The industrious person reveals that they think life’s sole purpose is material achievement. Meanwhile, the lazy person’s self-serving, pleasure-seeking goal results in slow suicide. The balanced worker deliberately makes choices to divide time and energies to include the well-being of others, too. What is the lesson so far? We can take what we want from life, but we must pay for what we take.
