As we move towards the conclusion of yet another year and reflect upon the last twelve months, most likely we can say along with the hymnwriter, “mixtures of joy and sorrow I daily do pass through.” As we reflect and take inventory of the last year, I hope we can see the happy, joyful moments that we have been blessed to enjoy by God’s grace. We need to count our many blessings, name them one by one, and it should not surprise us what the Lord has done, but sometimes we need to be reminded of just how much we have been blessed by individually counting (maybe even writing down) our blessings one by one. I hope we can thank the Lord for his blessings, care, provision, and grace in our lives, not just in the last twelve months, but throughout our entire lifetime.
However, as we think back on the last year, there also inevitably will be moments of sorrow, sadness, pain, and disappointment. While we don’t need to dwell on those moments perpetually, we should acknowledge those hard times and hopefully can also see the care and provision of the Lord even during the low valleys of this last year. The mixtures of sorrow make us much more thankful for the joyful moments when they come. If we did not experience sorrow here in our lives, we might be too content in this world, instead of longing for our home in heaven where there is no sorrow, pain, sadness, death, or tears.
This stark contrast of joy and sorrow was appropriately addressed by the Lord. “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.” (Eccl. 7:14) In the day of prosperity, we should be joyful. We need to enjoy the mountaintop vistas because they are typically very fleeting. Furthermore, you may find when you reach a milestone peak in your life, that it does not provide quite the fulfillment or satisfaction you expected it would. We are not made to live on the mountaintop because there is not much food or water there to sustain long-term life. Rather, most people have to live down in the valleys. We visit the mountain tops on short term special trips or vacations, but we live in the valleys by the lush rivers and fields. Mountain top moments are typically short and fleeting in our life, so it is appropriate to thoroughly enjoy those happy moments of prosperity when the Lord blesses for them to come in our life.
However, on the other hand, when the day of adversity inevitably comes, we should not become overly depressed or distraught. The appropriate response when the day of adversity comes is to “consider”. We consider and examine and meditate that God has set the one against the other, for what purpose? That man should find nothing after him. God has created a balance to life; he has “set” the day of prosperity over against the day of adversity. We need to enjoy the days of prosperity but don’t get too high during that good time. When the days of adversity come, we need to “consider” and not get too low or overly distraught or discouraged. Don’t get too high during the good times and don’t get too low during the bad times, but consider that God has appointed one against the other so that we should “find nothing after him”.
Our true joy is not realized solely in prosperity or removed in adversity, but God has set one against the other that we may learn that true joy, true contentment, true satisfaction is not found in receiving blessings or enduring adversity but in daily, intimate, close fellowship and communion with our Lord Jesus Christ. Why does God suffer adversity to come in our lives? One reason is that we will consider and learn that true joy is not from the ease or comfort of our life, but rather true joy comes in walking with God, even if he does call us to go through days of adversity according to his good, acceptable, and perfect will. True joy comes from seeking and finding Christ, even if we find fellowship with Christ in the midst of the fire like the three Hebrew men in Dan. 3.
In Eccl. 3:1-11, Solomon tells us that “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (v.1). Season in this verse means “an appointed time, an appointed occasion”. There are things in life that are proper and good in their time. However, we must remember that seasons are only temporary; seasons are transitional stages that are preparing for and then ultimately transitioning to the next season. Every season of nature is good and useful in and of itself – spring, summer, fall, and winter are all good and needful for the environment; even the cold of winter sometimes gives us the beauty of snow. Every season of our lives is proper and useful in its own way as well, but that season is always transitioning to a new season right after it. In this way, our lives are usually in constant fluctuations, either beginning, in the middle, or ending a new season almost all the time.
When we go through the seasons of prosperity or adversity, remember these seasons of our life are not just random, but are oftentimes necessary to prepare us for the next phase in our future. It is necessary for a caterpillar to be in a cocoon to properly develop into a butterfly. If that caterpillar tries to skip over or alleviate this process, the caterpillar’s growth and development will be severely hindered and not grow into a beautiful butterfly. In Eccl. 3:2-8 we are given 14 contrasting duets of times of prosperity and times of adversity; each duo has a positive time and a negative time. What we see in each of these contrasting duos of good and bad is that they are constantly fluctuating in our lives – we go can so quickly go from a time of laughter and dancing to a time of weeping and mourning (Eccl. 3:4); we go from a time of building up to a time of breaking down (Eccl. 3:3); we go from a time of getting and keeping to a time of losing and casting away (Eccl. 3:6), and then the vice versa happens just as quickly.
There is an appropriate season and purpose for every event under the sun. Particularly notice these contrasts in v.4, “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” All of these emotions are appropriate in the right setting, but inappropriate in other settings. Someone should not attend a funeral and be dancing and laughing. Yet on the other hand, in a time of joy and prosperity, one should not purposefully kill the mood by weeping and mourning. All of these situations and emotions are appropriate in the right time and the right place. Therefore, we can dance and laugh in the days of prosperity, and we can mourn and weep to a degree in the days of adversity. However, we need to consider and learn this lesson – that we should find nothing after the Lord.
However, these contrasting and alternating times are summarized by Solomon in Eccl. 3:11, “He hath made everything beautiful in his time”. Every season is beautiful and proper and beneficial in its proper place and perspective. Remember, these seasons are beautiful in “his time”, in God’s time, not in our time. We might desire for a difficult season to be over and pass on quickly into a more prosperous season, but we need to let each season “have its perfect work” to make us more mature and stronger for the next season. Each season can be beautiful in our lives, if we allow for God to use it for its intended purpose that is unique to that season. The work necessary to be performed in each season is different and unique. It is necessary to plant your field in the proper season in the spring, but then you have to go through the season of cultivation and patiently wait and labor before you can reap a harvest at that due season. You cannot reap the fruit of your harvest unless you are patient to wait for that proper season when the fullness of the harvest has come. If you try to reap before the proper harvest time, you will circumvent the growth of the crop to its full maturity. Therefore, we must not short-circuit either the planting or growing season but just wait patiently for God’s beautiful season of harvest to arrive (Eccl. 3:2b). It was necessary for a hot-headed 40-year-old Moses who hastily killed an Egyptian to learn patience in shepherding sheep in Midian for 40 years to prepare him to lead the stiff-necked Israelites out of bondage. Joseph spent 13 years in and out of servitude and prison to cultivate him with the wisdom to be second in command of Egypt at age 30 during a time of famine. Even Jesus quietly and humbly obeyed his parents and worked as a carpenter in Nazareth until his public ministry was manifested at age 30. Every season of our life, even if it’s not glamorous, is needful and beneficial to our continued growth in discipleship.
Life is a roller coaster with rapid and drastic pendulum swings of not only our emotions but of major life events – from joy to sorrow, from laughter to mourning. We see this world around us that is so prone to drastic changes and when we consider that, it leads us to “find nothing after him”. The constant fluctuations of this world lead us to desire something that is stable, secure, and consistent. That is why the severe and drastic changes of this world lead us to run to something that is stable, sure and steadfast, an anchor of the soul (Heb. 6:19-20). Whatever God does shall be forever (Eccl. 3:14), so he will not be changing like the events of this world do so quickly. There is stability and safety to trust in the Lord in the days of prosperity but also in the days of adversity.
Our true prosperity does not come from money, promotions, marriages, births, or other providential blessings, but true prosperity is in serving the Lord in humility. Therefore, we can still be spiritually prosperous even in the days of adversity because we seek and find Him. Our “completeness” is not found in this world, but in Jesus Christ (Col. 2:10). Therefore, even in days of adversity come in our lives, we can still have joy and completeness in seeking and finding Jesus Christ.