It is very sad that people leave the world just as they came. So, what does a person gain from “trying to catch the wind”? They only get days that are filled with sadness and sorrow. In the end, they are troubled, sick, and angry.

What does “trying to catch the wind” mean? It means that someone tries to catch something that cannot be caught. You can’t catch the wind. You can’t grasp hold of it and control it. The things of this world are a good example. Some people live to acquire wealth and accomplish fame, but these things have a way of slipping through their fingers.

People who live to catch the wind are ultimately unhappy people. They have to work hard to catch the uncatchable, to retain their things and their positions in the world. There’s never a moment’s rest, for the wind is never truly captured. In the end, it wears a person out and makes him sick. In the end, there is only frustration and anger.

Even if one could catch the wind during his lifetime, it is lost in death. Job said, “When I was born into this world, I was naked and had nothing. When I die and leave this world, I will be naked and have nothing” (Job 1:21). It is a sad thing when people who live to catch the wind depart from this earth. They leave the same way they came in, without any lasting achievements.

If trying to catch the wind is a futile endeavor, what should a person do in life? What will lead to happiness, instead of sadness and sorrow? According to King Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, the “most important thing a person can do is to respect God and obey his commands,” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). The trouble with wind-chasers is that they look down to the transient things of this world for happiness and fulfillment instead of looking up to the eternal things of God. Things come and go, but God remains forever.

If you live to love and serve God, you will never lose what you have gained for your efforts.

By John Huisman, friend of Bible League International