This short book by Mandy Smith matches its curious title with an even more unusual subtitle: Kite-Flying Lessons from Ecclesiastes. Emily McClure picked this book out to study with the ladies at the college group at home, and after working through one chapter with them I decided to read the entire thing on my own.
The goal of the book is to teach you to re-prioritize your life to find true meaning and in the process truly enjoy the things under the sun that aren't meant to give you meaning. Whether it's health, money, job, education, relationships, or just about anything else that you find yourself putting ahead of God, Solomon touches on it in Ecclesiastes and Smith expands on it in her book. When we learn to loosen our death grips on the less important things and put them under God, our lives will be more peaceful and focused through the good and the bad, and we may even re-learn to have fun. She also includes a list of carefree little things to do in the back.
While I've never lost the ability to enjoy the trivial joys in life, I do tend to run the risk of trying to focus on a dozen morally-neutral pursuits to the point that God becomes my fall-back when I've been run to the ground by the stress of chasing everything else. To use Smith's analogy, I tend to chase the wind and try to catch it rather than harnessing it to fly a kite. I highly recommend this book. It's a short, refreshing read with welcome reminders and a redirected look at what I once considered a depressing book of the Bible.
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