Ecclesiastes 5: How Much Is Enough?

"The lover of money will not be satisfied with money; nor the lover of wealth, with gain.  This also is vanity" (vs. 10).

Material satisfaction does not seem to be a typical human characteristic.  Contentment with what we have is a rarity.  The apostle Paul even referred to it as a "secret" (Philippians 4:12).  Much unhappiness in the world today stems from people always wanting "more" and being unsatisfied with what they have.  Yet when people do get "more," it often isn't long before unhappiness returns and the desire for "more" surfaces once again.  Solomon's observation that those who love money never have money enough certainly rings true with my experience!

Especially in our culture, we have a complicated relationship with greed.  In capitalism, some people consider greed to be "good" in that it inspires production and self-improvement as people strive to get more money and stuff for themselves.  The desire to acquire greases the wheel of our market economy.  The temptation to keep up with the Joneses means that more resources and opportunities must be chased after.  (No wonder Solomon considers such activities to be vanity and a chasing after the wind!)  

Yet our experience shows us that when we attain what we materially desire, we are happy - for only a very brief period.  It isn't long at all until we start taking our previous blessing for granted and start focusing on the next increase that we need (want).  

Don't fall into the trap of just always wanting more money, because it is very hard to know when enough is enough.  It's not necessarily wrong to want more, but consider what you really need it for.  Otherwise, it is just vanity to store up for ourselves treasures on earth that will not last.  Ask yourself, how much is enough?  Then let enough be enough.