*For Ecclesiastes 3, I am going to share an interpretation which I read a while back. I think they put it much better than I would. Enjoy!
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
“What Solomon is saying poetically in verses 2-8 is that we live in a closed universe. An open universe means you control your own destiny. You have the final say. But in a closed universe, you don’t have the final say. If our universe is closed, the question is, who closed it? Who locked us in? Solomon says God did, and He did it on purpose (verse 10). God has shut us up to the routines of life, but He has done something else. “He has also set eternity in the heart in the hearts of men,” Solomon writes in verse 11.
In other words, God has put within each of us a sense of the eternal, a yearning for the things that are beyond space and time, things like ultimate purpose and meaning. So, while God has set us among the routines of life, He wants us to look beyond the things of earth for something greater.
However, Solomon is saying that while God has given us a yearning and a questioning for the eternal, He hasn’t left the answers to life lying around in this world for us to find. To put it another way, you cannot find your ultimate purpose in life by looking at life.
There’s a reason why Solomon says:
12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
It’s only as we view life as the gift of God that we begin to find its purpose. It’s only as we live in time from the perspective of eternity, we find life’s meaning. In other words, if you want to find your purpose, don’t go looking for your purpose. Look for the Purpose-giver. That’s why the greatest way to find out who you are is not to look in the mirror, but to look to God, the One who gave you your identity. Because when you find your Creator, you find you.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting a better job or more pay. There’s nothing wrong with being the best you can be whatever you do. But if you make any of that your guiding purpose in life, after seventy years you’ll look back and not know who you are or why you were here.
If you know God, you will know your purpose. And when you find God, you will find you. Say, “God, I want to know You more than anything, I’ll let You reveal me to me.” When you do that, you will know why you are here and where you are going.”
My Sunday Skl 