Striving After Wind in Vain? (Ecc 1-3)

"How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind."

Sometimes even after a greatest victory or greatest defeat, we may get up early in the morning with the feeling that we are merely striving after wind in vain. It is hopeless. Why are we here? This son of David wondered. After a lengthy time, he realized that there is only one answer. So he wrote this, "I percieved that....":

"Also, He has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live."

Although we know that cannot avoid the "harsh reality" of this world, but we may choose to walk into the path of joy in the suffering and joy in the joy itself. In accepting a reality of every season and a time for every matter under heaven, we may take the pleasure in knowing that God is doing something good through everything.

"A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace."