Chasing the wind
The vanity of self-greatness
The Preacher of Ecclesiastes had everything the self could want — wealth, wisdom, pleasure, power, monumental achievements that outshone everyone before him. And his verdict on it all, repeated like a refrain, is devastating: vanity of vanities; all is vanity. The word he uses means vapor, breath, mist — something insubstantial that slips through the fingers the moment you grasp it.
He is describing the ultimate emptiness of the self-aggrandizing project. He had built and accumulated and accomplished on a scale few could match, all in the service of making something great of himself — and when he looked at it honestly, it was all vapor, a chasing after wind. The very things the self pours its life into securing turn out to be smoke, unable to satisfy or to last.
This is a strange comfort for the death of self. The grasping, self-promoting life is not only wrong; it is futile, a frantic pursuit of something that evaporates as soon as it is caught. To die to the project of self-greatness, then, is not to give up something valuable, but to stop chasing the wind. The Preacher's hard-won wisdom spares us the same disillusionment, if we will hear it: everything the self grasps for apart from God is vapor. Why spend your one life chasing what slips through your fingers?
“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
— The Preacher — Ecclesiastes 1:2 (WEB)
Stop chasing the wind — recognizing the self-aggrandizing project as vapor that slips through the fingers, so dying to it is loss of nothing real.
“Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.”
We are tempted to pour our lives into accumulating and achieving to make something great of the self, and the Preacher, who ran that experiment to its limit, found it all vapor and a chasing after wind. The interior work is to receive his disillusionment as a gift — that the self-promoting life is not only wrong but futile — so dying to the project of self-greatness is not surrendering something precious but ceasing to pursue smoke.
This week, examine honestly what you are pouring your life into grasping for the self, and ask whether, apart from God, it is anything more than vapor. Redirect that energy from chasing the wind toward what actually lasts.
The spirit of the age keeps dangling the next achievement as the one that will finally make something of you, so a whole life can be poured out grasping after smoke. But the Preacher already ran that experiment to the bottom and named it vapor — and the soul that believes him is spared the chase, freed to spend itself on what will still be standing when the wind has scattered the rest.
The Preacher of Ecclesiastes ran the experiment we are all tempted to run, and on a grander scale than any of us could manage: he poured his life into accumulating, achieving, and aggrandizing the self, holding nothing back. His verdict is a refrain that should stop us cold: vanity of vanities, all is vapor, a chasing after wind. The very things the self grasps for turn out to be mist that slips through the fingers.
This is an unexpected gift for the death of self. The self-promoting life is not merely wrong; it is futile, a frantic chase after what evaporates the instant it is caught. To die to the project of making yourself great is therefore not to surrender something precious, but to stop pursuing smoke. The Preacher offers his disillusionment so we can be spared our own. Consider honestly what you are pouring your life into grasping — and whether, apart from God, it is anything more than wind.
- What am I pouring my life into grasping for the self?
- Is it, apart from God, anything more than vapor?
- What would it free me to stop chasing the wind?
Lord, I pour my life into accumulating and achieving to make something great of myself, and the Preacher warns it is all vapor, a chasing after wind. Spare me his disillusionment. Free me from grasping smoke, and let me spend my one life on what truly lasts in you. Amen.