“Does it feel like you should be happy, you want to be happy, and you try to be happy, but somehow you can’t?” 

What a simple, common, yet poignant question. It’s in the preface to the new book Everything Is Never Enough: Ecclesiastes’ Surprising Path to Resilient Happiness, written by Bobby Jamieson. He is the senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He earned his PhD from the University of Cambridge and previously served on the pastoral staff of Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

This is a book about happiness that explains you’re probably looking for it in all the wrong places. Jamieson brings us into the world of Ecclesiastes and its enigmatic author, Qohelet, the world of hevel, or absurdity. His inspired words help us see our biggest problem with life is death. The epitome of pride is believing we can overcome it. We’ll never be happy until we surrender in humility to its inevitability. 

Jamieson guides us through three stories that guide on a life well lived: the contentment of limits, the joys of resonance, and happiness you can’t lose in this world because it comes from another. He helps us see, “Happiness is not striving for gain from life but receiving life itself as a gift.”

In This Episode

00:00 – Introducing Everything Is Never Enough

05:30 – Who is the Preacher of Ecclesiastes?

07:00 – Vanity, absurdity, and the search for meaning

13:30 – Modern thinkers on money, time, and ambition

22:00 – How Ecclesiastes shaped Jamieson’s life and ministry

35:00 – Preaching Ecclesiastes and pointing to Christ

Mentioned Resources

• Everything Is Never Enough: Ecclesiastes’ Surprising Path to Resilient Happiness
• Hartmut Rosa, The Uncontrollability of the World
• Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society
• Michael Sandel, What Money Can’t Buy
• Andy Crouch, The Life We’re Looking For
• C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

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