Tired of the ups & downs of this life?
Tired of life having ups and downs? Life is filled with them. One day things are going great, then all of a sudden life happens and you are feeling let down. You feel good about your day, but then you turn on the television and see wars, bombings, and riots, and you suddenly do not feel very good about things. It is frustrating, is it not?
That reminds me of a passage in the Bible about life under the sun. Please open your bible, read Ecclesiastes 3:1-10, and let’s talk about it.
Did you notice the negative, positive pattern? The ups and downs? That is the way life is.
Some who are younger have not experienced a lot of this stuff. But those of you who are older have. You have experienced times of war and times of peace. You have seen years of harvests, and then times of famines in other years. You have experienced times of weeping and mourning and times of laughing and dancing. You have celebrated the birth of a new child and then grieved the death of a loved one.
Here is the truth about this life: if you are at the high point, it will not last forever – there will be some low points. If you are at a low point, it will not last forever – there will be some high points. But that is what makes life under the sun so frustrating, is it not? We have little to no control over those things either.
Why would God make life that way? If life were perfect, where there were never any downs, but only ups, we would never give any thought to life beyond the sun. Look at what Solomon goes on to say in verse 11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”
NOTICE: God has put eternity in our hearts.
Is there anything beyond this life? Is eternity real? Are heaven and hell real? Is there anything after death? Those are real questions asked in every culture, in every period in human history, because we know there has to be something better than this life under the sun. There has to be. We know there has to be a place where those things that make us cry, suffer, grieve, and trouble us are all wiped away (cf. Revelation 21:4). It is not just because of the Bible. It is because of the ups and downs of this life. It is because our Creator put eternity in our hearts.
But here is the bad news: because of the Bible, we know there also is a place that is worse than this, too. Some think what they suffer here is the worst it could be – they are living in hell on earth – but that is just a matter of perspective. Eternally speaking, it could get much, much worse. Here is the balance in all of this: no matter what you are going through, there is still somewhere WAY BETTER than this. But no matter what you are going through, there is still somewhere WAY WORSE than this (cf. John 5:14).
In fact, this is Solomon’s whole point in this book. In Ecclesiastes 2 he started this huge experiment in searching for real, lasting fulfillment in this life under the sun. He had wisdom, money, power, food, possessions, women (sex), accomplishments, etc. You name it, he tried it. He had everything in this life and tried it all.
His conclusion? “Vanity of vanity, all is vanity!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). It is empty. It is useless. He was searching for something that could fill him up, but it only left him feeling more hungry. He describes it like “grasping for the wind” with your hand (Ecclesiastes 1:14). He was searching in all the wrong places. He tried things that simply could not do for him what he wanted them to. But the only thing he found real fulfillment in was “fearing God (His creator) and keeping His commandments.”
Solomon concluded that it was “man’s all,” because at the end of this life God will judge us for how we choose to live it (whether good or bad), even with its ups and downs, and it would affect where we end up in life beyond the sun (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)
Tired of the ups and downs of this life under the sun? Live your life here with your eyes fixated on life beyond the sun.
Visitors are welcome and valued. We meet at 15530 Herriman Blvd., Noblesville. Our phone number is (317) 219-5852. We meet for Sunday morning Bible Study at 10 a.m. and have classes for all ages. Worship begins at 11 a.m. and we have a Bible Study Wednesdays at 7 p.m. A warm welcome awaits!