Cain and Able in tension; intention

Men's Bible Study is taking up Ecclesiastes after a long couple of years. The line about "chasing after the wind" and futility in trying to build one's tower of earthly or worldly achievements is always fresh and relevant, especially in immigrant societies, where identity of self and in the eyes of others comes from "what you DO" and not "who you ARE" (your relatives and line of family trophies from the ages). And during the age of consumerism, where status can be staged or posed by material goods accumulated, the Ecclesiastes message that all that striving is meaningless does rebuke the myriad day-dreams of what to buy, what to build next.

in tension? intention? [clipart.com royalty free]

Interestingly, one of the Bible Study guys keeps a copy of the multi-lingual Bible open and found that the source word for 'meaningless' is the name of Able, the one whose sacrifices pleased God and whom brother Cain murdered. Playing with the words that intersect with 'meaningless' casts a little light on this advice about not confusing one's worldly glory with spiritual glory: meaning, intention, purpose, goal, target. Contrasting this is 'sin' -- as in the technical or literal/visual sense of "missing the target" or getting off the track when aiming to seek God's Will. In other words, Sin misses the goal; sin gets off track from the purpose, sin is the absence or the fouling of meaning. Thus "sin" and "meaning" are in opposition; they are in_tension (wordplay - at least for English - for 'intention' or the thing one is aiming for). The provisional conclusion, then, is that the tension between sin and righteousness is a basis for intention, and by extension also, meaning.