Fulfillment

Ever feel like life is slipping through your fingers—like you’re running hard but only chasing the wind? That’s the very picture Solomon paints in Ecclesiastes. He looked at life under the sun and saw both beauty and brokenness. In chapter 3, he reminds us that there is “a time for everything, and a season for every matter under heaven.” It’s a passage we know well, but when you stop and sit with it, you discover it holds the key to finding fulfillment in the middle of life’s futility.

Seasons are one of God’s greatest teachers. Farmers know it well—you don’t plant in winter or harvest in spring. Each task has its proper time, and rushing the season never works. The same is true in our lives. Maybe you’re in a season of waiting, or loss, or rebuilding. It may not be easy, but it isn’t wasted. God uses each season to shape us into the likeness of Christ. Trusting His timing is the difference between frustration and peace.

Still, we often bump up against our limits. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has made everything beautiful in its time, but He’s also put eternity into our hearts. That means we ache for something lasting while living in a world that constantly fades. It feels like working on a puzzle with missing pieces—we see part of the picture, but not the whole. That longing is by design. It pushes us to look beyond ourselves and trust the One who sees the beginning and the end.

But what about the times when life hurts? Solomon doesn’t hide from that either. He reminds us there’s a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. Our lives are like a symphony, and music needs both the highs and the lows to have depth. God uses both joy and sorrow to keep us humble, grateful, and dependent on Him. Rather than trying to hold on only to joy or only to sorrow, the call is to embrace both—knowing each has a place in God’s plan.

Peter picks up this same theme in the New Testament. In 1 Peter 1:6–7, he tells us that our trials are like gold being refined in the fire. No one enjoys being in the furnace, but that’s where impurities are burned away, leaving behind something more precious. God doesn’t allow suffering to break us but to shape us. The fires of life are where faith shines brightest, and they remind us that our hope is anchored not in circumstances but in Christ.

And then there’s the unsettling truth Solomon shares in Ecclesiastes 3:16: “In the place of justice, even there was wickedness.” That hits hard, doesn’t it? The very systems designed to protect the innocent and punish the guilty are often marked by corruption. Solomon saw it in his day, and we see it in ours. It’s easy to throw up our hands in despair, but the very next verse points us back to hope: “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter.” Human justice may fail, but divine justice never will.

This reality challenges us in two ways. First, it reminds us not to place ultimate hope in human systems. As important as they are, they will always fall short. Second, it calls us to live faithfully in the meantime. We can’t control the courts of men, but we can choose to walk in righteousness, to pray for God’s justice, and to reflect His light in a dark world. That’s how Christians live with integrity when everything around us feels broken.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road: what will you do with the season you’re in right now? Maybe it’s one of laughter, maybe one of tears. Maybe you’re watching corruption and wondering why God hasn’t stepped in yet. Or maybe you feel like you’re being refined by fire. Whatever your season, Ecclesiastes 3 points us back to the truth—God is in control, and He makes everything beautiful in His time.

So let me leave you with the same challenge I shared in my “Message in a Minute”: when you see injustice or futility this week, don’t lose heart. Pray for God’s justice, live righteously yourself, and fix your eyes on the One who will make all things right. Fulfillment isn’t found in chasing the wind—it’s found in trusting the God who holds every season of life in His hands.