3 "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 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.12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.
14 I perceived that whatever God does endures for ever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away."
Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
The existence of this paradox, however, is something which Christians are very slow to recognise. Sometimes we do not realise it is there at all - if so, we are living very superficially. It is possible to over-emphasise the satisfaction that Christ can give us in this life. There is also a divine dissatisfaction and restlessness which He gives. Sometimes tragically, we also mistake this hunger for something else. We are determined to have this or that, because we think that is what will answer all our emotional or temperamental problems, convinced that this alone can make us happy. We fight tooth and nail to obtain it, and having obtained it, and taken our fill of it, taken all that it is capable of giving us, we find to our dismay that we are still not satisfied, but jaded and disillusioned. Why? Because God has set eternity in our hearts and we have tried to satisfy them with finite things, and it cannot be done. It is vanity, says Solomon, I tried it too, and it did not work. This is a biggish lesson for Christians to learn. But when they do, it has far-reaching consequences, for we change from 'being unhappy even in our happiness' to 'being happy even in our unhappiness'. And that is a far safer and healthier state!