Life's Wild Ride - Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

Introduction

Only humans pay hard-earned money to be scared to death. Last October, we spent a day at Disney, and GK was excited because she was finally big enough to ride Space Mountain. She was excited, but she was scared, too. I could tell she was nervous because she started talking nonstop and really fast while we were waiting in line. When it came for our time to get in the cart, she was hesitant and tentative. She wanted to ride it so badly, but I could tell that everything inside of her was telling her to run away. While we were riding, I was laughing and screaming and telling her to raise her hands, but she was a little statue — frozen as a fossil. She didn’t make a sound the whole way around. But then, when we stopped and she was getting out, she exploded, “That was awesome! Can we please ride it again? Wow!” She couldn’t enjoy it until she knew how it ended.

Only humans can enjoy fear because only humans have the ability to see the big picture. Strap your golden retriever into a roller coaster and see how it goes. It’s a glimpse into part of what it means that God has made us for relationship with him. God has made us so that we’re able to see every small moment in the context of the big picture of his providence. He’s made us so that we can understand the how it’s all going to end despite how it feels in the moment. But, that’s easier on a roller coaster than it is with cancer, isn’t it? We’ll pay hundreds of dollars to be scared by a roller coaster, but we wouldn’t pay a nickel to experience the fear that comes with cancer. Why? It’s far less certain and far less clear, isn’t it? You don’t know how it’s going to go or how long it’s going to last or how things will end.

God’s Word

To frame that tension up in the way of Ecclesiastes: We can see the purpose of the fear in the roller coaster, but cancer and bankruptcy and disability and the potential of a thousand threats every day just feel random and meaningless. They seem like “vanity of vanities.” And, that’s what’s in mind when we come the most famous passage of Ecclesiastes. He wants us to be able to face life honestly and wisely without panicking. He wants us to always live with the big picture in mind. How to Face Life without Panic (headline):

Life is a “wild ride.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 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.”

Expect “ups” and “downs”.

Proverbs can present as though our experiences are flat, predictable, and dependent upon us. Then, hard times come, and our immediate reaction is either “What did I do wrong?” or “Why didn’t God keep his end of the deal?” That’s why we need Ecclesiastes. It shows the dimension and complexity of life. Life in this world oscillates. It’s like a roller coaster. It’s up and down. It’s turns this way and then sharply the other way. It’s good and bad, hard and joyful, wonderful and miserable. One day, your son is born, and the next day you may be burying your father. One day, you get a big promotion, and the next day your wife discovers a lump.

But, I want you to notice that he says there’s “a time” for every matter “under heaven”. “Time” means something more than just when it will happen; it means when it was “appointed” to happen. These are the experiences “under heaven” on earth, but these experiences are still “under heaven”’s sovereign rule. That is, they aren’t surprises, and they aren’t unexpected. But, they aren’t meaningless either. This poem is a call to realistic expectations so that you aren’t taken off guard by the hard times and so you can actually enjoy the good times. Ups and downs are the reality of a world that has been made “crooked” by sin as Ecclesiastes 2:15 points out. But, just because it’s crooked, just because it’s painful, just because it takes your breath away doesn’t mean that it’s out of control. The only way you can enjoy any measure of happiness on this earth is to accept as an inevitable reality that life will be up and down. It’s to expect it so that you can savor the good and not fall into despair in the bad.

Don’t close your “eyes.”

So, the tendency can be for us to respond either by closing our eyes and pretending that it won’t hit us or by trying to seize control of the train so that we can avoid them. But, neither of these is wisdom, and both of these will lead to your undoing. Don’t close your eyes, and don’t try to seize the train. That’s Ecclesiastes’ message. If you try to close your eyes so that you don’t see or self-medicate so you don’t feel or escape into TV/work/gaming so that you don’t face, you’ll only set yourself up for a more painful plummet down the track. But, you shouldn’t try to jump into the driver’s seat and oversteer your life either. Hard times can’t be avoided. Nobody misses out on pain or weeping or disappointment. And, if you think you can, if you think you have to, you’ll find yourself unable to enjoy the good for worrying about what bad might come. And, you’ll feel totally overwhelmed and out of sorts trying to stop what you can’t stop or control what you can’t control. A healthy person, a wise person lives with their eyes open with adjusted expectations in the here and now so that even when disappointment and failure and loss come they can know, “Even though this hurts, even though this isn’t good, even though I didn’t want this, I’m still on track. I’m still on schedule. This isn’t an irrecoverable crash.”

Lean into the “turns.”

But, this famous poem also helps us to know what we should do, not just how we should think in these moments. You’ll notice that these “times” and “seasons” break into three rough categories: experiences, emotions, and responses. They sum up what you experience, how you feel, and how you respond. That is, even though God is sovereign over every time and every matter and even though you can’t prevent all the bad from happening, there’s still something for you to do. God’s sovereignty never negates man’s responsibility in the Bible. When it’s time plant, you should plant. When it’s time to reap, you should reap. When it’s time to build, you should build, and when it’s time to demolish, you should demolish. When it’s time to laugh, you should laugh and when it’s time to cry, you should cry. If you try to lean the opposite way the roller coaster is going, you’ll get hurt. You have to lean into it. It’s what’s wise. Wisdom is responding rightly to the current circumstance. If you try to pretend like something painful is no big deal, you’ll do harm to your soul and to others. If you aren’t able to enjoy and laugh when life is good, you’ll do harm to your soul and to others. If it’s time to fight but you choose passivity, harm comes. If it’s a time of peace but you incite fights, only pain results. You have to lean into the turns with wisdom. Are your responses wise? Are they appropriate for what you’re facing?

Trust your “safety harness.”

Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 “I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. 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 remember the first “big upside-down” ride I ever rode. It was the Looping Starship at Six Flags. Every year, I had wanted to ride it, but I was always too short and small. But, if you ever rode it, it wasn’t like the roller coasters that looped really quickly. It took you upside down and just held you there. So, I remember being so excited and getting locked into the seat. But then, when it went upside down and hung me there, my tiny body began to shift under that harness, and I became convinced that I was going to die. I became hysterical and screamed for them to shut down the ride, but they didn’t listen. To calm me down, my dad started giving me these assurances. “Trust your harness. It won’t let you fall out. If people were getting killed on this, they wouldn’t let them run it.” The safety harness was meant to be my assurance — my guarantee — that everything would end up okay. Ecclesiastes give some similar assurances here:

Every “memory” will be “fond.”

When you’re in the midst of the ups and downs of life, it can just become about survival if we’re not careful. We’re too busy to enjoy the good times, and we’re too worried to see past the hard times. But, notice what the Teacher says: “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” That is, the sovereign Lord is using the ups and downs of life like a sewing machine that pushes the thread up and down until ultimately each stitch, each puncture, each bob and weave creates something beautiful. It feels random, but it’s making something. And, it’s not just making anything; it’s making something beautiful. When your kids aren’t obeying or when your career isn’t satisfying or when your budget isn’t balancing, we have trouble seeing the big picture. But, one day — even if it’s in the next life — the memory will be fond.

That’s the thing about the Looping Starship. I didn’t ride it again for years. I was scared to death, but now I remember that story fondly and laugh at it. In some way, by some means, God will take the hardest moments of your life, and make them beautiful to you. That’s the assurance here. Now, it’s important that you notice it’ll happen “in its time.” It may take a while to feel that way or to see it that way. But, the deepest relationships are woven with painful thread. The greatest experiences of God’s provision happen in the times of greatest poverty. The power of the gospel is most clearly known when it heals the worst pain. If you’re in Christ — and this is only true if you are — you can be assured that your story ends beautifully.

Your “Engineer” is “trustworthy.”

Another way my dad assured me was by saying, “I would never let you do anything that I think would hurt you.” My dad trusted the engineer, and I trusted my dad. In a similar way, Jesus puts his confidence in the Father’s plan, and we have confidence in Jesus. That’s the meaning behind the famous phrase “he has put eternity into man’s heart.” God has so designed us that we know that there’s more. We have an intuitive sense that life is more than our wins and losses, ups and downs. We know, and need to be reminded, that our suffering and hardship are headed somewhere. That is, we need to be assured that God has a plan that’s “beginning to the end” even if all we see is the shambles of our lives.

He’s casting our eyes further down the road. “Eternity” here can actually mean “ignorant.” That is, we’re ignorant of the future. We know it’s coming, but not what it looks like. So, what do we do? We trust God as the architect of providence. It’s to place faith in God that He will work these things together. Imagine Solomon reflecting on this verse as Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus who had experienced all the ups and downs of life, especially the downs. Jesus who was God’s Son, but then died. Can’t you imagine Solomon’s commentary: “I knew God would do something. I just didn’t know what, when, or how. I knew He would come through, and it’s even better than I had imagined.” We know that God will come through. The resurrection assures us of his control. We just don’t know how or when. But, He’s trustworthy. Your life isn’t meaningless. Your suffering isn’t pointless. Your downturns aren’t forever. He will bring them together in some way and at some time so that you call them beautiful. Trust him!

Raise your “hands” and “laugh”.

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 “I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.”

My favorite roller coaster is Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We went a few years ago before GK was big enough to ride it; so, I rode it by myself. And, when that coaster took up to the top of the mountain and suddenly the track ran out and it started sending me backwards, I don’t mind telling you that as a grown man I started laughing out loud. I raised my hands and had the time of my life. That’s what experience allows you to do with roller coasters, isn’t it? It allows you to enjoy them the way they were meant to be enjoyed. You’re not so tentative and hesitant any more. You can just raise your hands and laugh. I love how the Teacher brings this into view here. If you know God, and it is dependent upon whether you know him or not, He gives gifts so that we can have an enjoyable experience, not just a neutral one, while we live in the here and now.

Enjoy the “ride.”

That is, I think it’s important that you know that pleasure isn’t wrong or inappropriate. You shouldn’t feel guilty about enjoying life within the boundaries of wisdom. God has designed us for pleasure, and He has given us pleasures to enjoy. The Teacher says here: “There is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live....everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure.” We ought not be forlorn, solemn people all the time. There’s an invitation here to lighten up, raise your hands, and laugh as your ride. Your life isn’t going to be constant happiness. That’s unrealistic as we’ve seen. But, my goodness, laugh every chance you get. Enjoy the good gifts that God has given to you as they’re meant to be a foretaste of the greater gifts to come.

The Puritans said that we should embrace “the goods” of life. And, we should embrace “the goods” of life insofar as they point us to the goodness of God. 6 realms of pleasure given from God as gifts as found in Scripture: (Leland Ryken) 1) Nature 2) Artistry 3) Family 4) Social Activity 5) Work 6) Corporate worship. And, it doesn’t glorify God to try and resist their joy. You don’t have to seek out misery or turn every joy into a negative thought. Of course, within wise means and in the fulfillment of the two great commandments, but you should enjoy God’s gifts as you enjoy God himself! God is really that good. Raise your hands, and laugh!

See through the “flips.”

In fact, there’s a way in which you can maintain your joy in Christ even when this ride flips you upside down. He says that “everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in ALL his TOIL.” That is, there’s some pleasure to be found in all of it. Even the worst part of it. That’s “God’s gift to man.” That is, even though there’s a time for weeping and a time for death and a time for war, we have been given the gift of knowing how this ride ends, of knowing things are going to be right-side up again. So, we can have joy in that.

It’s pointing us to the resurrection principle. The cross appeared like a pointless waste of a good man. The cross looked like the end of hope for everyone who had believed He was the messiah. The cross appeared to be the worst of the worst. But, then there was the resurrection, and the resurrection showed that God was more sovereign than we thought and the cross wasn’t as pointless as it looked. So, here’s the gift: If you’ll bank the future and hope of your life upon what happened in the resurrection, then you can be certain that there is pleasure to be found in all your toil. God is more sovereign than you think and your suffering isn’t as pointless as it looks. You can enjoy the ride — even the fear — because you know how it lands.