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Real Ones Know When to Hold the L.

Ecclesiastes 7 — The Preacher said funerals beat parties and then proved it

7 min read

Key Takeaways

The Preacher said funerals are better than parties — and actually made it make sense. Grief builds character; vibes just build playlists.

God made people upright but humanity keeps choosing schemes over surrender — that's the whole thesis of the chapter right there.
Don't be so righteous you burn out or so reckless you check out early — fearing God is the only way to walk that tightrope.
"The old days were better" got called out as fake wisdom literally thousands of years ago — nostalgia isn't insight, it's cope.
Not a single person on earth has only done good and never sinned, so maybe chill before you spiral over what someone said behind your back.

📢 Chapter 7 — Real Ones Know When to Hold the L 🧠

shifts gears here. After spending the first half of Ecclesiastes showing how everything under the sun is meaningless, he pivots to — not the motivational poster kind, but the kind that tells you hard truths you didn't ask for.

Inside this Chapter

Grief Growth Patience Integrity Self-Worth

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Grief and Loss

Jesus showed up to a funeral and cried. He could have skipped straight to the miracle. He didn't.

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This chapter reads like a collection of with a philosophical edge. It's the Preacher sitting you down and saying: here's what I've learned about life, and most of it is going to feel backwards. Get ready.

Funerals Hit Different 🪦

opens with one of the most counterintuitive takes in all of :

"A solid reputation is worth more than expensive cologne. And — stay with me — the day you die is better than the day you're born.

It's better to go to a funeral than a party. Why? Because death is where everyone ends up, and the living need to actually think about that. Grief teaches you more than laughter ever will — a heavy heart can actually make you wiser.

Wise people sit with the hard stuff. Fools just chase the next good time. Hearing a real rebuke from someone wise is worth more than hearing a thousand hype songs from fools. Because a fool's laughter? It's like dry twigs crackling under a pot — loud, fast, and gone."

Nobody wants to hear this, but it's facts. The Preacher isn't saying is bad — he's saying a life built on avoiding hard things is a life built on nothing. The people who grow are the ones who don't flinch when reality shows up. 💯

Patience Over Pride 🏋️

Now drops some one-liners that hit like proverbs on steroids:

"Oppression can make even a wise person lose it, and a bribe will corrupt anyone's heart.

The end of something is better than its beginning. Patience beats pride every single time.

Don't be quick to get angry — anger moves into a fool's heart and never leaves. And stop saying 'the old days were better.' That's not wisdom talking. That's just nostalgia."

That last one is lowkey a call-out for every generation that thinks things used to be perfect. The Preacher says if you're romanticizing the past, you're not thinking clearly. Wise people deal with what's in front of them. 🧠

Wisdom Is the Real Flex 💎

makes the case for why wisdom is the most valuable thing you can carry:

"Wisdom paired with an inheritance? Elite. It benefits everyone who's alive to see it. Wisdom protects you the way money protects you — but the real advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of the one who has it.

Look at what God has done — who can straighten what He's made crooked? When things are good, enjoy it. When things are hard, consider this: God made both seasons. He did that on purpose — so that no one can figure out what's coming next."

This is the Preacher's way of saying: you don't control the narrative. God authored both the highs and the lows, and your job isn't to decode the future — it's to through all of it. ✨

Don't Overdo It (Either Way) ⚖️

This section gets real. has seen some things:

"In my brief life, I've seen it all. A righteous person dying young while doing everything right. A wicked person living long while doing everything wrong.

Don't be overly righteous, and don't try to be too wise — why destroy yourself? But also — don't be overly wicked, and don't be a fool. Why die before your time?

Hold onto both of these truths. The person who fears God will navigate between them."

This isn't permission to be mid. The Preacher is warning against two traps: self- perfectionism that burns you out, and reckless foolishness that takes you out early. The answer to both extremes is the same — fear God and let Him hold the balance you can't. 🙏

Nobody's Perfect (and Stop Eavesdropping) 👂

keeps it brutally honest:

"Wisdom makes one wise person stronger than ten rulers in a city.

But here's the thing — there is not a single righteous person on earth who only does good and never sins. Not one.

So don't take to heart everything people say about you. You might hear your own servant talking trash. And honestly? You know you've done the same thing to other people."

No cap — this is one of the most grounding passages in the Bible. Before you spiral over what someone said about you, remember: you've talked about people too. Everyone has. The Preacher isn't excusing it — he's leveling the playing field so you stop acting like you're above it. 🪞

The Search for Answers 🔍

Now gets vulnerable about his own quest for understanding:

"I tested all of this with wisdom. I told myself, 'I will be wise' — but it was far from me.

Whatever has existed is far off and deeply, deeply hidden. Who can find it out?

So I turned my heart to search and explore — to find wisdom and the reason behind everything. To understand how foolishness becomes wickedness and how madness takes root."

Even the wisest person who ever lived hit a wall. The Preacher went all in trying to understand life's design and still came up short. That's not failure — that's honesty. Some things are beyond human reach, and the wise person knows when to sit with the mystery instead of forcing an answer.

The Trap and the Truth 🪤

closes with a difficult reflection — and a universal conclusion:

"I found something more bitter than death: the person whose heart is full of traps, whose affection is a net, whose embrace is chains. The one who pleases God escapes, but the sinner gets caught.

Here's what I found, says the Preacher, piecing it all together one thing at a time — what my soul searched for again and again, but I couldn't fully grasp. One trustworthy person in a thousand I found, but among all of them, the pattern was the same.

This alone I found: God made humanity upright, but they have chased after endless schemes."

That final line is the whole thesis. God's original design was good — people were made upright. But humanity keeps choosing complexity over simplicity, scheming over surrender. The Preacher isn't cynical about people — he's honest. And that honesty is what makes this chapter hit so hard. The answer was never about finding the perfect system or the perfect person. It was always about who made you right in the first place. 🙏