“The fool folds his hands together and ruins himself. Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and pursuit of the wind. Again, I saw futility under the sun.”

Ecclesiastes 4:5-7

The folly of not trying and not striving leads to loss. The road to ruin is that we are lazy and complacent and do not get what we want, because we do not try. We are constantly dissatisfied and unhappy. We lack because we do not work and do not work because we are lazy…

The complacent are happy with very little and sit down, fold there hands in peace and tranquility and are therefore ruined, as their business fails.

Hard work does pay off, both for the person working and for the people they are serving. To try to do well is a positive characteristic of a good worker. A constant person will strive to be excellent and not settle for second best. The lazy person is careless and settles for less than acceptable. Their work goes unrewarded and they remain at the bottom of the ladder of success with very little to show for it.

Sitting down on the job, is the lazy person’s folly. The busy person will do well and be noticed for doing a good job in the end. Everyone benefits from the example and work of a busy person.

Busy is good, but peace and a settled life is better, or a combination of both things, each in its proper context.

Better to have a bit less of this worlds good and have a peaceable life, than to be constantly striving for more and more, either money or success. To be constantly working and wearing yourself out, is a striving after the wind and therefore a fools game.

Many work very hard to get so-called better things in life, but fill their life with sorrow and hard labour, that benefits them nothing and is wasted by others. Let other people make their own way and find ways to do the things they want to do, through their own ingenuity.

Less is better with peace…

Everything is futile and ultimately, a striving to catch the wind.

This is a repeated message. Everything that is pointed out here in this book, except one thing, is futility. Vanity dogs the steps of everything we do and touch. Only the worship and remembrance of our Creator is worth anything. To know Him is everything, and He gives life, peace and meaning to it all.

We listen to the words of the wise Teacher and learn…