We Americans are famous for our bottom-line approach to life issues and problem-solving — just give us the bottom-line! And if there is time left over and we're still interested, we might stick around for the process of how someone arrived at the bottom-line. We live in a world of sound-bites from journalists, from politicians, and even from our cell-phone messages that get right to the point. And there are times when we simply need to know the bottom-line as we go about our daily chores or decision-making.

But stepping back from the details of life's journey and the daily grind, we are often caught up with a sense of "chasing the wind" once we slow down enough to realize what is driving our calendar and our credit cards! That sinking feeling of wasted time, life's dead-end streets, or missed opportunities can fill us with regret or even a cynicism toward life that tempts us to conclude that everything is meaningless and that we are just victims driven along by some anonymous fate!

Solomon was known for his many wise axioms that can sum up in a sentence a principle for living. In his book called Ecclesiastes — often translated Preacher — Solomon waits to the very end to share his bottom-line of life's journey, but painstakingly walks us through the process of rethinking our world and the meaning behind our life's journey. Whether it's about the relationship of knowledge to wisdom in our information age, whether it's about life's little pleasures, or time itself, or money, or youth and old age; Solomon helps us re-think our world: how the world often views these topics and how God's people ought to examine these topics. It's a healthy exercise and a great way to start the new year after our New Year's Day prayer from Psalm 90, asking the Lord to teach us to number our days so that we might apply our hearts to wisdom! More than a book filled with resolutions, it is a book filled with meaningful reflections — all designed to help us rethink our world … and our journey with Him!