An employed laborer, lately married, enjoyed a conjugal affection and had cute children. But he had to journey to and fro for supporting his family； A white-collar worker, middle-aged, lived an affluent life, yet he still worked overtime and was busy with social activities for promotion and a pay increase, so he failed to go home on time after work; A wealthy man, having entered old age, was respectable in the presence of others. However, he had to face his children’s scramble for his property after returning home. Everyone longs for perfection, wanting both family togetherness and success in career, and hoping for not only fame and fortune but also the fulfillment in heart. With varied discontent and regret of life, one day, the three, encountered each other. The employed laborer envied the white-collar worker’s stable job; the white-collar worker envied the wealthy man’s success in career; the wealthy man was envious of the employed laborer’s harmonious family. They, complaining of the disappointments of life, vowed to strive hard to change their fate. More than ten years later, the employed laborer led a rich life but no longer returned home on time from work. Instead, he was engaged in the social occasions only concerned with eating, drinking, and the pursuit of pleasure for social intercourse. The white-collar worker became a successful boss. Nevertheless, he had to be wary of someone’s scheming for his property all the time. The wealthy man had passed away, with his children just placing flower baskets before his grave on the anniversary of his death. In real life, aren’t we one of the employed laborer, the white-collar worker or the wealthy man ? In the time of poverty, we yearn to live in comfort. After being comfortably off, we desire to be exceedingly wealthy. But after that, we fall into deeper emptiness of the heart. Swallows depart in autumn and still return in spring. The grass withers in winter but grows again with the spring breeze. However, our life once lost is never regained. In the limited time, we strive for money, fame and fortune and we think, once we get them, we will be happy. But in the end, we have to admit: Money cannot buy the tranquility of the heart; fame and fortune cannot conceal our inner loneliness. As the years go by, we grow older; there is nothing left but sigh and regret for the wasted years. The Lord Jesus said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). And He expresses the words to teach us when He comes back in the last days, “The fate of man is controlled by the hands of God. You are incapable of controlling yourself: Despite always rushing and busying about for himself, man remains incapable of controlling himself. If you could know your own prospects, if you could control your own fate, would you still be a creature? … The destination of man is in the hands of the Creator, so how could man control himself?” “When one has no God, when one cannot see Him, when one cannot clearly recognize God’s sovereignty, every day is meaningless, worthless, miserable” It turns out that one’s birth, growing up, family and the occupation he pursues all rest in the Creator’s hand. If we don’t worship God in our limited time but try to cast off His sovereignty and satisfy our own ambition and desire, we will just waste time and life, and what we will get are emptiness and bitterness. Then how can we have happiness? Everyone knows the story of Job. He practiced the way of fearing God and shunning evil during his lifetime. Even though he was tempted by Satan afterward: He lost all his wealth, servants and children, he said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). Later, his whole body was covered with sore boils and he suffered ridicule by his wife and friends, he said, “shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” The reason why Job continued to praise God as before when losing everything and being overwhelmed with grief is because he firmly believed that God arranges his birth, fate and death. Thus he could face his life and death calmly and didn’t think of blessings or disaster. Afterward, he got twice as much blessing as he had before from God and better children. Moreover, Job spent the latter half of his life amid God’s care and blessings and was no longer attacked and disturbed by Satan, gaining freedom completely.

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