What Do I Do When Life Feels Hopeless and Worthless?
Life does have meaning, but it needs to be lived in the right way. You can find value in everything you do, but you have to start by getting the big rocks, the greatest priorities, in the right order.

In yesterday's devotional, I asked what you would do if you knew you only had three years left to live. I referenced Dr. Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon who died at age 37 with lung cancer.
Days before his death, Kalanithi–an agnostic for much of his life until finding Christ–wrote a piece titled “Before I Go.” In it, he mentioned the author of Ecclesiastes and made this concluding statement: “Money, status, all the vanities the preacher of Ecclesiastes described, hold so little interest: a chasing after wind, indeed.”[1]
If you know anything about the Book of Ecclesiastes, you know it isn’t made for the faint of heart. It’s not written for those who want to sip martinis and live with their head in the clouds. Instead, it’s an honest look at life and morality.
In these pages, we have the life experiences of an author only identified as Qoheleth, or preacher. The longer you read this book, the more it feels like the author was transported to the 21st century with a message for our time. He opens the book with this dramatic statement: “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”[2] Then, he goes on to offer the most discouraging, unsettling, demotivating diatribe one could imagine.
To the casual observer, the first four chapters of Ecclesiastes are little more than a deranged rant. A madman spouting off about life amid a drunken stupor. Seriously, click HERE and read it for yourself.
If I were to offer a paraphrase of this author’s words with my current context as the point of focus, it might go something like this: