Ecclesiastes 9

Just in case we didn’t get the message in chapter 8 yesterday, Solomon continues to drive home the point about having little control over the things that happen to us in life: “The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” (vs 11)

Time and chance happen to them all. In other words, at some point, all of us will suffer. That’s really the salient point, here, isn’t it? I mean, nobody cares about or complains when “good” things befall them. If we won the lottery, we wouldn’t sigh and say, “Well, time and chance happen to everyone.” We only think things like that when things don’t work out as we “expect” them to—when the swift don’t win the race, when the strong don’t win the battle, when the brilliant don’t find wealth.

Suffering comes to every person in some way at some time. On this sinful planet, there is no getting around it. But there is a fundamental blessing in suffering, and it’s this: Suffering exposes the myth that we are in control of our lives. Most of us believe this very thing most of the time—that we are ultimately in control of our lives. And suffering, whenever and wherever we encounter it, blows that myth to smithereens. Why? Because if we really were in control of our lives, we would never elect to suffer!

That time and chance happen to us all should wake us up to the reality that we are not really in control of this day. Now, you may have woken up with plans for the day, but whether you’ll end the day as you have planned actually remains to be seen. There are a million things that could happen to you today that are outside of the plan you made for yourself. Face it: you actually have no idea what your day will hold!

You may not know, but there is someone who does. God knows. He knows what will happen to you today—whether things will proceed as you imagine or whether they won’t. Nothing catches Him off-guard. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by the great Holocaust survivor, Corrie Ten Boom: “There is no panic in Heaven! God has no problems, only plans.”

God is not surprised when unexpected things come your way. He has a plan, and in fact, His plan is always right on schedule. Be thankful for all the things—yes, even suffering—that remind you of that!

So, if you’re staring down “time and chance” today, take heart.
You’re not in control, and you don’t have to be.
And if you’re not staring down “time and chance” today, it may not be long before you are.
Relax.
God’s got it all under control.