Our enormous collection of water bottles lives in a cupboard over our fridge. Every time I open it, I can almost be guaranteed a smack in the face by one falling out. You see, my five children have quite the fixation with acquiring the perfect water bottle. A few years ago, everyone was quite taken by a Contigo with a very satisfying silicone straw. Then a number became obsessed with owning a Frank Green (RRP $59.95). My very kind sister gifted us several one Christmas and I felt certain that, at that price, this should be the water bottle to finally satisfy. But no. A youth group leader introduced one daughter to the Owala FreeSip® (RRP $59.99). This water bottle can be used to both sip and swig. Revolutionary. We now own four. But even this did not scratch the itch. A child’s recent gift wish list included “Yeti water bottle” at number three.
As I picked up Bobby Jamieson’s Everything is Never Enough, you can understand why my children and their water bottles immediately sprang to mind. As Jamieson writes in his preface, ‘One way to be unhappy is to lack what you most want. Another is to get all you could possibly want and discover that everything is never enough’ (p x). At the level of water bottles this may seem trivial, but what of work, knowledge, pleasure, money and power? Jamieson’s book engages deeply with Ecclesiastes as it examines its big questions: Does life have meaning? What is the good life? How can I be happy?
Jamieson begins by orientating us with some metaphors for what Qohelet, the author of Ecclesiastes, is doing. He is on a quest to observe and evaluate what people do. Ecclesiastes is a question which serves to prod and poke our tender parts. Qohelet is a comic using hyperbole and caricature to teach us truth. He is a philosopher at a party and a photographer arranging a collage. Jamieson then helpfully envisages an interpretive grid for understanding Ecclesiastes as the view from a three-storey building.
On the ground floor, which occupies most of the book, Qohelet investigates through observation, experience and reflection the whole of human life from its own level. “He weighs the merits of work, sex, food and drink, wealth, power and many other possible sources of meaning and satisfaction. He finds them all wanting and pronounces them all ‘absurd’”(p xvii).1
The author identifies seven points in the book where Qohelet climbs to the second storey. Jamieson understands the apparent contradiction between what Qohelet sees on the first and second floors as a key challenge in interpreting the whole book. On the second floor Qohelet is not “observing surfaces but discerning depths” (p xvii). The second floor has him consider life through the lens of it being created and sustained by God. As he surveys many of the main subjects again, he pronounces them good and commands their enjoyment. On the second floor he sees everything as a gift.
On a few occasions Qohelet takes us to the third floor. “Qohelet only stays long enough to point out two crucial reference points: one, fear God because, two, he is going to judge all that you do and all that everyone does” (p xvii).
A feature I really appreciated in Everything is Never Enough, is that it spends its time where Ecclesiastes spends time. Much of the book is considering the first floor. So much so, that by the end of the examination of searching for meaning in gain, work, knowledge, pleasure, money, time, enough, power and death, you understand why Qohelet states: “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (Eccl 2:17). This book will help you feel the weight of Ecclesiastes and appreciate its emphasis. Jamieson concludes, “Hevel is the tragic divorce between act and result, yearning and outcome, deserving and fate. It is the world’s failure to satisfy our demand” (p 109).
Despite the bleak view from the ground floor, Jamieson delights the reader with bites of the wisdom that Ecclesiastes has for modern readers. He uses as conversation partners other critics of modernity as he insightfully diagnoses much of what ails the modern West. I especially enjoyed his discussion of the prevailing understanding of modern work that leads to collective anxiety, disappointment and burnout. The author asks: “What happens when work becomes the chief repository of identity, the prime source of status and reward, the paramount path to fulfillment?”. His answer: “our worship of our work is shown and seen to be hevel, absurd” (p 31).
As we move to the second floor you can feel the weight of this absurdity begin to lift. Here you’ll find a beautiful, even at times poetic, description of what it is to understand life as a gift from our good God. Jamieson queries: “How would your life be different if you believed that your existence is the good idea of an infinitely glad God? What would it look like to found your life on the conviction that a happy God made you because he was happy to” (p 133). He argues that Ecclesiastes would have us understand that this giftedness of life should shape how we view all of it. “To enjoy life as God’s gift is not to pretend life is something it isn’t but to receive life as what it is. To enjoy is not to act as if but to act because” (p 133). In fact, Qohelet commands enjoyment, and highlights that God will hold us to account for how we have received his gifts: “Enjoyment is not just a benefit but a test, a proof of whether you receive life as God’s gift” (p 144). Jamieson’s reflections on presence and attentiveness as spiritual disciplines are particularly strong, offering a convicting biblical framework for these ideals.
The briefest section of the book is the top floor. Here Jamieson takes us compellingly to the conclusion of why: “fearing God is not an alternative to life’s absurdity but a necessary response to life’s absurdity” (p 193), and that divine judgement, rightly understood, is ultimately our ground for hope. Qohelet doesn’t expound on how this judgement can be good news for us. Jamieson concludes his book by leaving Ecclesiastes behind “in order to answer this heavy haunting question that Ecclesiastes asks and doesn’t answer” (p 204). Here, finally, we come to the Lord Jesus. “Everything is never enough, but Jesus is. Jesus is enough to satisfy God’s judgement on your behalf. And Jesus is enough to satisfy your soul forever. Jesus alone is God’s answer to your life’s absurdity” (p 211).
This book deepened my appreciation for the beauty of the clear-sighted, timeless wisdom of Ecclesiastes. By dismantling the places we often, even unconsciously, seek satisfaction and meaning, Jamieson exposes the roots of our discontentment and unhappiness. It’s a commendation of the joyful Christian life that rejoices in the gifts we have constantly flung at us by our God, and that enjoys him infinitely more.
It is written with a non-Christian audience in mind. The author states as much in the preface (p xii). This approach may be why he chose to include no footnotes, or even Scripture references, in the main text. You’ll need to flip to the endnotes to find them. While appreciating his intention, I found this frustrating. Personally, I would gift a non-Christian a book with a more explicit entry point for the gospel than this one. However, this was one of the most encouraging reads of the year for me. It rightly earned its place on several “best of 2025” lists and won the Popular Theology category of The Gospel Coalition 2025 Book Awards. It will stir your soul from a swamp of discontent and help you set out on the enjoyment of your God-given life as a serious business. It will expose where you are falsely looking for meaning and significance and enliven your joy in our God, who is more than enough to satisfy you for eternity.
- Here Jamieson translates hevel as “absurd”, but through most of the book he chooses to use the Hebrew word so we grasp the full breadth of Qohelet’s usage rather than leaning too heavily on one translation. ↩︎