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Life is tough. The daily grind is filled with unfairness that sometimes begs for an answer to, "Why?"
It is not fair, especially when one of our own receives a difficult diagnosis, or loses a job, or gets the raw end of a deal. It can be enough to make a person shake their fist at God in anger and frustration.
In another vein, the world is full of people who are destroying themselves while they search for happiness in places where it will never be found. Too many put the value of possessions over the value of relationships. The driving pursuit of 'more' can feel like being on a merry-go-round that will not stop.
So, the daily grind churns with various consequences of anger and frustration at making poor decisions with the resulting losses that keep coming in through the door.
When we look at the much-loved passage in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, we see that there is a time for everything. It is all appointed. God is in charge, and it is all good.
Solomon's point in this section is that God has a plan for each person. He gives cycles of life, each with its work for us to do. And these cycles are opportunities to discover that, without God, life's problems have no lasting solutions.
It is important to remember that God's timing is not always coordinated with our timetable. We may, for example, plan to live until age 90, and some of us will; but God has already decided the length of my days and yours, before we were formed in our mothers' wombs.
We are not supposed to understand God's ways; were not God. And we will never be content with our lives on earth because we are created for eternity. We have eternal value, and only God can truly satisfy us.
Jesus was familiar with poverty, abandonment, and suffering. He was falsely accused and tortured by men. He was the only innocent man who ever lived, and He had to bear the full wrath of God against sin.
But Jesus knew who was in control. He knew that everything that happened was to be for His and our highest good, our salvation.
If God can redeem the suffering of Christ, then He can redeem our suffering as well.
So, instead of withdrawing into misery from life's grinding unfairness, let us allow those same uncertainties to make us more faithful to God.
The reason God is sovereign is to bring us comfort and hope to turn to HIm when life does not cooperate with our expectations.
Life is tough, but it is still good. It is wonderful to be alive. Our job is to honor God with every breath we take.
Bonnie Donnelly is a Commissioned Ruling Elder for the First Presbyterian Church, Marietta, Ohio.