elitist food for thought

haven't been doing my own bible study recently... which is probably why my mind has been going off at weird hours of the day thinking about random things in life.

and so today i cracked open my bible finally (yeah i open it during sermons but that doesn't really count) and found myself at ecclesiastes (how apt.) as the last stopping point in my quest to read the bible from one end to the other in a year (it's been about 2 years lol.) and found this:


Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly;
For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—
Only what he has already done.
Then I saw that wisdom excels folly
As light excels darkness.
The wise man’s eyes are in his head,
But the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I myself perceived
That the same event happens to them all.
So I said in my heart,

“ As it happens to the fool,
It also happens to me,
And why was I then more wise?”
Then I said in my heart,

“ This also is vanity.”
For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,
Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.
And how does a wise man die?
As the fool!
~Ecclesiastes 2:12-16 (NKJV)

or if you want it in plain english:

And then I took a hard look at what's smart and what's stupid. What's left to do after you've been king? That's a hard act to follow. You just do what you can, and that's it. But I did see that it's better to be smart than stupid, just as light is better than darkness. Even so, though the smart ones see where they're going and the stupid ones grope in the dark, they're all the same in the end. One fate for all—and that's it.

When I realized that my fate's the same as the fool's, I had to ask myself, "So why bother being wise?" It's all smoke, nothing but smoke. The smart and the stupid both disappear out of sight. In a day or two they're both forgotten. Yes, both the smart and the stupid die, and that's it.
~Ecclesiastes 2:12-16 (The Message)


'both the smart and the stupid die, and that's it'
i love that. puts things into perspective so nicely.
what am i living for huh. isn't it fantastic if every step i took could be used by God to add to His kingdom? that's some purpose to be living for. =)