Finding Purpose in All of Life's Sorrows and JoysSýnishorn

Release Your Grip and Find Peace

When the Teacher tells us there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, he’s not talking about options. You can’t just add the seasons of life you prefer to your life’s registry. He’s saying life is weeping and laughing, tearing and mending, keeping and throwing away. And when he tells us there is a time for everything, he’s not offering some wise and optimistic sentiment. He’s saying that there is nothing new under the sun. The cycle always repeats, one season always follows another, and there isn’t anything you can do to change it.

The Teacher’s wisdom helped him discern the seasons of life; it didn’t free him. The seasons constrained him like everyone else. However, he knew he wasn’t in control. And this enabled him to face and embrace each season as it came.

This is ancient wisdom. Throughout human history, and even in large parts of the world today, people have lived close to the land. They’ve labored in the fields and looked after herds and flocks. Seasons, planting and harvesting cycles, and the phases of the moon have all played a role in their lives. The Teacher doesn’t have to explain to them that there’s a time for everything. They already know.

But for those of us living in the modern world? We might need more help. That’s because we’ve been doing our best, through technological advancement, to break the cycle of life’s seasons. And in some ways, we seem to have almost done it. Refrigeration delays the decaying process. Injections slow the appearance of aging. Birth control stops a biological cycle in its tracks. And we believe the best is still ahead. But like the great philosopher Brandy Norwood famously said, Almost doesn’t count!

Maybe that’s why we are often so discontent. No matter how hard we try, the seasons still change. We try to make summer last forever, but then the leaves start to fall, and there’s nothing our shorts, shades, jackets, or heated blankets can do about it. You can’t change the weather by changing your wardrobe, just as you can’t escape death by taking your vitamins.

That’s the bad news. Now here’s the good. Spring always follows winter. Troubles and tribulations, however hard they may be, are only temporary. Take this to heart, and you won’t get too high or too low, depending on the season. You’ll find the ability to live in the tension. Instead of fighting against the change, you’ll learn to accept the inevitable. You’ll find peace.

And here’s some more good news. It’s way better than that: You’re not in control; God is. And seeing your life in the light of that truth is going to set you free.

Have you heard of the Copernican revolution? In the sixteenth century, this dude Copernicus came up with the radical idea that the earth wasn’t the center of the universe but revolved around the sun. People thought he was crazy. After all, they saw the sun rise and set each day even as they stood still. But we know better now. Why? Because we’ve got a better perspective. We know the truth. We need a Copernican revolution for our hearts.

Why? Because we still act as if we’re at the center of the universe. But like the earth, we’re the ones in motion, moving from one season into the next. We circle a much greater center, one without which we could not possibly live. And that center is God. We need that perspective. Joy is found on the journey, not in a destination.

Reflect

We’re all in seasons of life. Knowing which one we’re in can be helpful at times. So, where are you right now?

Read back over Ecclesiastes 3:2–8. Where do you see yourself in those verses? Maybe you’re in the planting season, or you’re thinking about the future. There is hope. But there is also anxiety. You don’t know what the harvest will bring. Or maybe you’re in an uprooting season. You’re moving to a new city. You’re leaving a relationship. There’s something in your life that needs to go. Whatever it is, ask God for guidance.