Scriptures
“I thought to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.” – Ecclesiastes 1:16-17
“I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes 2:10-11
“So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.” – Ecclesiastes 2:17-19
Infact, right at the start of Ecclesiastes, Solomon says “Meaningless! Meaningless! ” Says the teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!”
Materials
Obtain some flexible rulers or make them from cardboard. IKEA has some flexible rulers and you may be able to ask them for some for your class of youth.
What to do
Have youth measure things with their rulers… maybe have a length scavenger hunt… give youth several measurements and they have to scour the room and find the objects that match the measurements… first to get them all correct gets a prize.
Take it to the Next Level
Have Youth then write the standards of measurement that people use to evaluate their lives. In today’s scripture we see some ways Solomon measures life. You might give them some helpful scriptures to write on their rulers. Talk about how those standards are corrupted when the measurements are wrong. Then everything gets measured incorrectly.
When our measurements of ourselves (pride), expectations (jealousy), comparisons with others, and timing (patience) are wrong it messes up our results. When we measure life by wealth, by pleasure, by excitement, we discover it becomes meaningless, monotonous, and futile. Our standards for measurement must be exact and based on God’s Word or every measurement we make will be wrong. God’s Word is to be the ruler for our life. When we use other things as rulers our measurements come out wrong.
MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.