Create a little tension

To start this last lesson from Ecclesiastes, “What’s the meaning of life?”, I think it would be good to summarize the book beginning with chapter 1 up to the start of this week’s passage: Eccl 11:7-12:14 and see if you can create a little tension: “And the answer is…”.

You can look thru your previous lessons and make your own summary, or just summarize the article The Meaning of Life. This lesson concludes Ecclesiastes, so it’s important to refresh member’s working memory the main ideas of the previous chapters. Otherwise, having forgot the salient points, they may start to reason in circles, or assume the conclusion. If so, the empirical truth of the Teacher’s search would be lost. That would be a waste, since the Teacher was a real man, who conducted a real search for the real meaning of life, and came to an important conclusion. Don’t lose the teachable moment, so ask members to personally answer the question: “What is the meaning of life?”

I liked the illustration of “How can we get all the air out of a glass?” Jesus Christ fills our lives with meaning.