If we use our experiences as the foundation for our understanding, we will misinterpret them and draw faulty conclusions about God. Instead, we need God to help us understand our experiences through his word.

Wisdom helps us live in a complicated, fallen world. But it can't fix our fallenness, which is our real problem, evidenced by the death that befalls each of us. The solution to that lies not our wisdom, but in the foolishness of the cross.

It can be difficult to understand and accept the way things play out in the world. Too often, bad things seem to happen to good people while the wicked prosper. But we see and understand it differently when we realize there has only ever been one righteous man.

God controls all things. We do not. As hard as that reality is for us to accept at times, it brings about our ultimate good.

We are tempted to look to material wealth for security and satisfaction – things it cannot ultimately deliver. When we find true security and satisfaction in Jesus, we are freed to enjoy our material blessings as gifts from God.

Our worship is not immune from the influence of sin and its curse. It tends to get disordered to bring glory to us rather that the God who deserves it. True worship does not parade our efforts before the Lord, it brings empty hands to Him in faith.

Relationships under the sun are flawed, yet we need what they offer. The perfect friendship of Jesus frees us to rejoice in loving and be loved by others imperfectly.

Sin fractured the way we relate to each other as fellow image bearers of God. Some our greatest pain is suffered at the hands of one another, and we do our share of inflicting it. Jesus stepped into the injustice of life under the sin to free us from its guilt and effects.

Peace and hope in the changing seasons of life do not come from control or understanding, but through trusting the God who ordains them all for the ultimate good of His people.

How should we engage with the things of this world?