It’s that classic line in all the films and books. “Hasn’t anybody ever told you?” some husky-voiced man holding a gun, or red-lipped seductress with a bottle of poison, asks. “Life isn’t fair.” It’s a classic because it’s true. Heartbreak, destruction, starvation, poverty, and abandonment: whether you experience those things on a literal level or a metaphorical one, you will experience them and you may not even deserve it. For, as aforementioned, life isn’t fair. In fact, it’s not even that kind.

Making that discovery early on prompts us to want to escape that fate of living a life that is full of suffering. We all become employed in what I’d like to call the business of gap filling. We try to find purpose in the accessible things around us. Some drink. Some smoke. Some watch television. Some exercise. Some work long hours. Some have sex. Some read. Some write. Some listen to music. Some play music. Some even try to fix this terrible, terrible world. The fact is that at some point or another, we all want to forget the pain of living and the things we do to fill the gap of suffering have no real meaning other than to distract ourselves from that pain. To put it biblically, “all is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2).

Usually this thought is met by a cynic’s triumph and an optimist’s downfall. Realizing that life is what it is and there will always be another injustice, another tragedy, is sometimes what drives people over the edge. But here’s a thought based on a somewhat meager study of Ecclesiastes: yes, everything is vanity and because of that, you are free. Free from expectation and disappointment and free for joy. Yes, joy. How is that possible in a world full of suffering where everything is without purpose? I see it as since we can’t really bring any purpose to the purposeless things in this life and we can bring no triumph of good deeds to the grave, we can live looking towards the source of actual purpose and triumph: the cross and the work that has already been done there. That is our joy.

We do not need to fill the gap of purpose because God already filled it for us. Thus, when we understand that certain things we do are distractions, we need not despair in their meaninglessness. Instead, we can delight in them for what they truly are. In the same vain, when those distractions bring suffering, as they are wont to do, we can understand that that too will come to pass. Our worth is not in what we distract ourselves with. Our investment is not in the gap-filling business. Rather, our worth is in Christ and our investment is in joy.