O my soul,

Did Solomon in fact discover anything of value on his tragic quest, on his journey of self-destruction?

He most certainly did. He was after all the wisest man who ever lived.

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.

― Ecclesiastes 3:10-11

Let’s consider this carefully, for there is enormous blessing in Solomon’s insight here, such that we should be grateful to him for the sacrifice he made of himself to uncover it.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

― Ecclesiastes 3:11a

Everything!

Let’s focus in then on just one of these beautiful things. O my soul, let’s focus on your own failure and shame and loss and searing pain, and your despising and rejection. Let’s focus on these, for he has made everything beautiful in its time, even this.

But how could this possibly be true? How could something so wrong, so shameful, and so humiliating, be made beautiful?

Here’s how.

Firstly, we may have to receive this in the prophetic past tense. He has made everything beautiful in its time. It is a certainty, but it may not yet have been fulfilled. The Lord’s timing is such a mystery but his faithfulness is not. His name is Faithful and True.

Now let’s dig in.

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

― Psalm 34:18

How can heartbreak and loss be made beautiful? Because they are a gateway. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted. This is both consolation and exceeding joy.

You must know, however, that you have a choice here. In your pain and loss and suffering and heartbreak, you can harden your heart and set your face and resent your situation and turn away from the Lord, or you can soften your heart and run to the Lord and cast yourself upon him and pour out your sorrow there, and surrender to his goodness and sovereignty.

Which will you do?

For in heartbreak and loss you have a unique advantage. The things of this world have lost their grip on you. If all you have is the Lord, it is so much more straightforward to put him at the centre of your life, to love him and live for him alone.

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

― Psalm 37:4

This of course is nothing less than an astonishing and lavish promise from the Lord that he will give himself to the one who delights in him alone.

The things of this world are such a distraction, such a barrier to wholehearted love and devotion to the Lord. We saw that with Solomon. The Apostle Paul expands upon this.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith⸺that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

― Philippians 3:7-11

Do not shy away from sharing in Christ’s sufferings. Marvel at the intimacy with the Saviour which is to be found there. What a privilege and what a joy!

And suffering also can be a gateway to holiness.

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

― 1 Peter 4:1-2

Do not overlook your choice which will determine whether the suffering becomes a process of sanctification or of hardening. O my soul, soften your heart and surrender to the work of the Saviour upon you. It is more painful by far but the rewards are great.

Also do not overlook in the pain and the shame and the humiliation the Lord’s great power to use precisely these to excise all pride from your life and replace it with humble gratitude. Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

But beware. As you start upon this path and become more aware of the enormous blessing you are receiving and the Lord’s mighty work of transformation in your life, be most careful to avoid this mistaken belief: that it is the Lord who caused your failure and shame and pain, and for this reason. For might it not be natural to suppose that he would consider the sacrifice to be worth it? But this is not how he works.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

― Romans 8:28

The Lord works these painful and shameful things together for good, but he did not cause them.

There is mystery here, and the Lord’s ways are difficult to fathom indeed, but in the heartbreak and in the pain have you noticed that your longing for the Lord is beginning to be satisfied?

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.

― Ecclesiastes 3:10-11

O my soul, know that the Lord is making beauty from the ashes of your life, and he is not done yet! 🙏