Ecclesiastes 9:11
“I saw something else under the sun. The race isn’t won by fast runners,
or the battle by heroes. Wise people don’t necessarily have food. Intelligent
people don’t necessarily have riches, and skilled people don’t necessarily receive
special treatment. But time and unpredictable events overtake all of
them.” ~ Translation GWTN

Ecclesiastes is one of my top favorite bible books.  Solomon was the real deal — he brought it straight, with no chaser.

This passage of scripture is frustrating, sobering, and comforting — all at the same time. What it says in a nutshell is that we can never “override” God’s sovereignty. It can’t be done. You can try all you like, and still find yourself “overtaken by unpredictable events”. If you rest in your own ability to “make things happen”, you will, at some point in your life, find that the “math didn’t add up” — your efforts didn’t make the difference you banked on. The “other person” got the job. Your husband/wife left you, anyhow. All those vitamins and health drinks and workouts, and you still got diagnosed with cancer. Some things are simply out of our control.

It’s okay to strive, and have goals, and make plans — some of us are too scared to do anything, for fear that God will snatch the rug from under our feet, at the moment we touch the ground. I’ve been there, too.  But life has a way of showing us just how powerless we really are.  God is my shelter. I can live, take risks and dream — trusting by faith, that God will guide me safely to my destination (where He wants me to be). God’s goodness and favor is more important than my natural abilities/intellect/whatever.

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