This book is just fascinating. It paints a little different picture of God's role in the world. We know God is control, but life is still life as God created it. He may intervene, but when and how remains a mystery and what we do know is that we will still experience the same ups and downs as our non-believing counterparts. The difference according to this, seems to be the wisdom at which we approach and respond to these ups and downs.

We may be the salt of the earth. But salt is just an enhancement of what's there already. It's easy for us to separate ourselves from non believers. But I think the message here, though spoken very differently, is a christlike one. We have much more in common with our non believing counterparts than we like to admit. But that's by design and that's the reason we shouldn't let material commonality with others define what we relate to and care about. I don't think im penning this very clearly, but the main point is that at first Solomon's words seem at odds with the gospel but I didn't think they actually are.