- For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. -
Let’s start with the last part of this verse. Does this mean that the smartest person in the world doesn’t speak?
Maybe that’s true, but it’s not what the verse is saying. It’s speaking to the phenomenon we discussed last week.
The fool runs his mouth and doesn’t say anything.
I hate it when writers are self-referential, but the similarity here is too useful. What is the number one rule for modern writers?
To say it in as few words as possible. To write in as few words as possible. To write concisely.
I hate this rule. It’s not that I like being verbose or confusing; I love the prose of Victorian novels and the long descriptions in Tolkien’s writings.
There is a musicality to that wandering prose that makes me feel at home. It’s old leather, a burning candle, and actual paper.
Right, I get it. I’m the only one. It’s fine. You can all be wrong if you want. Hopefully this blog is concise enough for your modern sensibilities.
Despite my preferences, I can’t deny the power of a tightly written sentence. In the example above, “To write concisely,” has so much more “authority” than the first draft.
The irony of this blog saying much about Ecclesiastes is also not lost on me. By the time we are done, I’ll have written more words than are in the book.
I hope you agree with me, what makes the fool’s speech useless is not necessarily his many words, but it’s his many words on the same topic or on nothing at all.
I’ll listen to a brilliant person speak for 3 hours, because everything they say is new. I can’t listen to a fool for 5 minutes. You all can be the judges of where I am on that spectrum.
Now, let’s return to the first half. Time to get controversial!
Follow your dreams.
When I was a kid, that was the motto of the Disney channel. Every ad break was one of its child stars drawing Mickey Mouse ears followed by a disembodied voice instructing me in the idiom.
Even as a child, the idea infuriated me. What’s the point of following your dreams if it just makes you selfish? Can a narcissist help his family?
Okay, maybe five-year-old me didn’t say narcissist.
I think I was wrong, but I don’t think Disney was right, either. We both had it wrong.
You shouldn’t define what is worthwhile in your life. Your one person in the billions of human souls trudging through this existence. How could you ever figure it out?
You need a NorthStar, and frankly it needs a piece of you in it. We’re not all cut out to be missionaries in foreign countries, and God knows that.
What do you need? You need the obsession God gives you. You need to seek it constantly, and you don’t need to let selfishness or weakness stop you from pursuing it.
You need to help others in the body of Christ do the same. Give them every inch you have while not neglecting what God has called you to do.
You need to do this in your family. Encourage your spouse and children and help them grow into what God is calling them to be, even if it scares you.
Know, whether from God or elsewhere, a dream is fulfilled with much labor.
Will you build kingdoms of stone or sand?
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