All Was Vanity - And Vexation Of Spirit

Ecclesiastes 2
11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

It is a strange feeling, to be in your 60's, to look back, to think, "Huh. I guess things worked out better than I ever thought they would." And then, to sit back one night and read Ecclesiastes.

Webster 1828 Dictionary
VAN'ITY, n. [L. vanitas, from vanus, vain.]
1. Emptiness; want of substance to satisfy desire; uncertainty; inanity.
2. Fruitless desire or endeavor.
3. Trifling labor that produces no good.
4. Emptiness; untruth
5. Empty pleasure; vain pursuit; idle show; unsubstantial enjoyment.
6. Ostentation; arrogance.
7. Inflation of mind upon slight grounds; empty pride, inspired by an overweening conceit of one's personal attainments or decorations.

It is not absolutely clear to me how the New Testament gospel of salvation should be reconciled to the book of Ecclesiastes.

Webster 1828 Dictionary
VEX, v.t. [L. vexo.]
1. To irritate; to make angry by little provocations; a popular use of the word.
2. To plague; to torment; to harass; to afflict.
3. To disturb; to disquiet; to agitate.
White curl the waves, and the vex'd ocean roars.
4. To trouble; to distress.
5. To persecute. Act. 12.

My thoughts? In the end, live a humble, frugal, prayerful life. And remember, all you really have is the peace that comes from God's grace.

Isaiah 55:7 Paraphrased By Thomas Playfere
Tell the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto Lord and he will have many years in heaven.