reflection and discussion questions: 

1. Review: For the past two weeks we have been challenged to practice setting aside two minutes a day to look up. To set aside two minutes of silent reflection upon Who God is. How has that been going? Any challenges? Any praises?  

2. Take a moment in prayer, welcoming the Spirit's presence. Then read Ecclesiastes 2:12-17.  As you do, reflect on the following question:  How could it be possible for Wisdom to be hevel (smoke, vapor, vanity, meaningless)?

3. Ralph mentioned that one writer suggested that we plant a tree, write a book, and have a child in order to leave a kind of legacy behind us after we're gone.  But will this really accomplish what we want it to?  However helpful and positive such acts may be (especially having children!), what is the downside to considering these as our lasting legacy?

4. In what ways do you see similarities between the Preacher's message and Jesus' message?  (Consider Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5:20-30, for example.) 

5. Do you think it's helpful to think of Ecclesiastes as "the upside-down gospel"?  Why?  Why not?

6. Entropy, or the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, says that everything is breaking apart, wearing down, losing steam.  Our founding pastor, Larry Evans, said that "we leak."  How are these two ideas connected, and how does knowing this help us prepare to receive the good news of Jesus?

7. Read Psalm 73:11-28.  What does the psalmist do that helps him make sense out of a broken world in which evil people so often get ahead?  

8. If you had to pick one or two key verses to carry with you from this psalm, what would they be and why? How can you practice "carrying it with you?" 

9. Eugene Peterson said that worship is "a quiet but insistent witness to the ordering presence of God in a company of people in a particular place."  Discuss this with one another.  How is God's presence among us an "ordering presence"?

helpful resources for ecclesiastes:

• Bible Project video on Ecclesiastes. 

• Gear Talk podcast on Ecclesiastes. (A Biblical Theology Podcast with Tom Kelby and Jason Derouchie)