Have you ever reached a point in your life where you stopped and said to yourself, “Hey, I am doing the same thing today that I did yesterday! I just did a sink load of dishes last night and here are more dirty dishes today!”

That is exactly what Solomon addresses in Ecclesiastes.

Well, not the dirty dishes part, but the futility of living day to day life.

He refers often to everything being vanity. But don’t misinterpret vanity here to mean “absolute meaninglessness” as a lot of people do. What it does refer to is “inscrutable repetitiveness.” Bingo!

That is exactly what I was talking about in the first paragraph.

You washed the dishes last night – and there they are – all dirty again today.

You filled your car with gas last week – and now it needs filling again.

That towel was clean yesterday – now it is dirty.

So what is the answer to all this vanity . . . this repetitiveness?

According to Solomon in Ecclesiastes, it is the gift from God of being able to find joy in the repetitiveness.

God gives gifts to everyone, but He only gives believers the ability to enjoy the gifts!

Ecclesiastes 2:24 & 25 say: “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil (like doing the dishes). This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from Him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (ESV)

It is like being given the gift of a can of baked beans. In order to enjoy the gift, you also need the gift of a can opener. That is what God gives us – the gift of the “can opener” so we can enjoy His gifts.

Here is what Ecclesiastes 5:18 & 19 say:

“Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil (i.e. in doing the dishes!) with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil (doing the dishes)—this is the gift of God.” (ESV)

But what about the person who has it all but has not given his life to God? Is his wealth a gift from God?

According to Eccelesiastes 6:1 & 2, the answer is yes: “There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind:  a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.”

Don’t you want to live a life of joy? I know that I sure do.

Ecclesiastes 8:1 says “And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil (of doing the dishes) through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.” (ESV)

So the next time you wash the dishes, take time to enjoy the gift of owning those dishes and the dish soap.  Enjoy that hot water flowed right into your sink at a simple movement of your hand. Enjoy the gift of loved ones who dirtied the dishes. Enjoy the time away from other tasks to clean up those dishes – maybe even using the time to pray. There can be so much enjoyment in one simple task. Don’t be too busy to enjoy it.

God is the One Who gives us the ability to enjoy His gifts.

And enjoyment makes life a lot more fun!

By the way, I learned these great insights from Joy at the End of the Tether (affiliate link) by Douglas Wilson. I highly recommend this book for more in depth study of Ecclesiastes and the key to enjoying all of life’s tasks and other great gifts from God for you to enjoy every. single. day.

First published: Jan 2015

Updated: Nov 2023