Chasing the Wind Life on the Treadmill

Devotional

Day 1: When Life Feels Like a Treadmill of Vapor

Some days feel like running in place—busy, tired, and strangely unchanged. Ecclesiastes names that feeling hevel: vapor you can see for a moment but can’t hold. Under the sun, the cycles keep cycling—sunrise, sunset, wind and water—yet the soul still asks, “What do I really gain?” You’re not broken for noticing the weariness; you’re honest. Naming the treadmill is the first mercy God gives, because it invites you to step off and listen for Him. Let that honesty turn into a quiet prayer, “Lord, show me what matters today.” [00:58]

Ecclesiastes 1:2-9
Vapor of vapors—everything feels like a breath slipping through the fingers. What lasting profit comes from all our grinding under the sun? Generations come and go while the earth keeps turning. The sun loops, the wind circles, the rivers run to the sea that never overflows. Words run out, eyes keep looking, ears keep listening, yet they’re never finally full. What has been is what will be; under the sun there’s nothing truly new.

Reflection: Where does your week currently feel like running in place, and what simple way could you pause in that spot to notice God’s presence today?

Day 2: When You Chase Gain, You Chase the Wind

Gain promises invincibility—enough money, enough status, enough experiences to finally feel untouchable. But the more you try to grip it, the more it slips like smoke. Jesus invites you to receive what comes as gift rather than clutch it for identity. You can enjoy the breeze without bottling the wind; you can welcome a good thing without asking it to make you somebody. Trust loosens the fists, and in open hands even vapor becomes a gift. Ask Jesus to teach you how to enjoy without grasping. [01:12]

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11
“I tried it all,” says the Teacher—laughter, wine, building projects, houses and vineyards, gardens and pools, wealth beyond counting, music and romance, every delight the heart could hunt. Wisdom stayed on the steering wheel while pleasure filled the tank. Yet when he reviewed the whole project, it all added up to vapor—chasing wind. Nothing under the sun could deliver the gain his soul demanded.

Reflection: What is one concrete area where you’ve been chasing gain (a purchase, a promotion, an experience)? What small relinquishment could you practice this week to receive it as gift instead of identity?

Day 3: Pleasure Escalates; Contentment Receives with Gratitude

Pleasure always needs “more,” but contentment can say, “That was good, God—thank You.” The difference is not the meal on the table; it’s the posture of the heart. With Jesus, you’re free to enjoy what comes without turning it into a ladder to climb. Treasures received in His name don’t have to prove you; they can simply be enjoyed and passed along. Store your joys where rust and rush can’t eat them—before the Father who sees. Gratitude turns moments into worship instead of measurements. [00:56]

Matthew 6:19-21
Don’t stack your treasures where moths chew, rust corrodes, and thieves break locks. Stash them in God’s realm, where none of that can touch them. Wherever your treasure lives, your heart will move in and live there too.

Reflection: At your next ordinary joy (a meal, a walk, a conversation), how will you intentionally receive it as a gift from God rather than a fix to chase again tomorrow?

Day 4: Let Jesus Name You, Not Your Achievements

Jobs change, seasons shift, headlines fade, and even being the “go-to” person eventually passes to someone else. Gain whispers, “Get enough and you’ll never be vulnerable again,” but that’s a promise it cannot keep. Jesus names you—daughter, son—before you lift a finger, and that identity outlasts every scoreboard. Work hard, create beauty, serve well, but don’t ask those good things to carry the weight of your worth. Live before God’s face, where your value is settled and your calling is shared for others’ good. In that place, criticism stings less and applause matters less. [01:07]

Matthew 16:26
What good is it if a person stacks up the whole world yet misplaces their own soul? What could anyone hand over as the price to buy their true life back?

Reflection: What title, metric, or role are you quietly depending on to feel “untouchable,” and how could you practice trusting Jesus if that were taken away for a season?

Day 5: From Gain-Game to Daily Trusting Obedience

Real change begins small: identify one place you’re playing the gain-game, bring it to Jesus, and take a simple step of obedience. You may still do many of the same activities, but now as worship—out of allegiance, not anxiety. Seek first His kingdom, and you’ll find the freedom to enjoy fog as fog, gifts as gifts, work as service. Life under the sun won’t stop being vapor, but life before God becomes steady and clear. Together, let’s trust Him this year—one surrendered decision at a time. He will meet you on the path. [01:03]

Matthew 6:33
Make God’s kingdom and His way of setting things right your first pursuit. As you do, the other needs will find their proper place around that center.

Reflection: What is one small, concrete act of obedience you can take this week—tied to a specific area you’ve been trying to control—that would express, “Jesus, I trust You first here”?

Sermon Summary

Life often feels like a treadmill—plenty of motion, not much movement. Ecclesiastes names that sensation with the Hebrew word hevel: vapor, breath, ungraspable. Wisdom, work, wealth, pleasure, projects—none can deliver the invulnerable, lasting gain the heart keeps chasing. The cycles continue: the sun rises and sets, streams run to the sea, history repeats, and nothing “arrives.” Even knowledge carries a cost; more understanding can bring more sorrow. Yet this isn’t a call to despair or to quit good pursuits. It’s a call to abandon the game of gain.

The heart-changing shift is this: when chasing gain, one is chasing the wind; when trusting God, even vapor becomes a gift. The Preacher’s experiments—laughter, wine, building, art, sex, status, wealth—end with the same verdict: all is striving after wind. That verdict isn’t a critique of pleasure or work themselves; it’s a critique of what we try to extract from them. We want them to name us, secure us, and make us unassailable. They can’t. Jesus frees from that treadmill. With Him, gifts can be received without being grasped, enjoyed without being asked to be a savior.

A helpful lens: think three floors. Ground floor: life under the sun often feels absurd and fleeting. Second floor: life is still full of real gifts—meals, friendships, work well done. Third floor: life is lived before God; everything is accountable and therefore meaningful. Stack those lenses and the view sharpens: enjoy what God gives, without leaning on it for identity; do your work in allegiance to Jesus, and nothing done in His name is in vain. This changes the questions we ask: not “How can I get enough to finally be safe?” but “How can I be faithful with what He’s given?” Practically, identify one place you’ve been saying, “If I just get this, then I’ll be okay.” Bring it to Jesus. Trade grasping for trust. Then choose one small, concrete act of obedience. Seek first His kingdom. In that posture, even fog can be beautiful—something to behold, not to bottle.

Key Takeaways

1. Chasing gain is chasing wind. The human heart keeps trying to secure an unassailable life through wisdom, work, and wins. But gain always shifts, leaks, and asks for more; it cannot finally hold you. Naming this emptiness is mercy, because it rescues you from expecting salvation from created things. The wind can be felt, not bottled. [15:13]
2. Receive vapor as God’s gifts. Gifts aren’t meant to be gripped; they’re meant to be enjoyed in gratitude. When God is trusted as Giver, even fleeting joys become holy—good precisely as passing, not permanent. This posture turns anxiety into worship and turns moments into doxology. [30:42]
3. Identity cannot rest on roles. Roles change—jobs end, kids grow, influence shifts—and if identity rides those waves, the soul capsizes. Identity secured in Christ frees you to work hard without making work your name. From that freedom, you can love people more than outcomes and hold status with an open hand. [22:37]
4. Live before God, not under the sun. Life looks absurd on the ground floor, but the higher view reframes it: gift and accountability under God’s gaze. This fear of the Lord doesn’t shrink life; it stabilizes it, making ordinary faithfulness eternally weighty. Kingdom accounting redeems daily labor that the treadmill can’t. [17:58]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:28] - Treadmills and running nowhere
[02:01] - Enter Ecclesiastes’ hard questions
[05:26] - Meet the Kohelet and “hevel”
[08:59] - Nothing new under the sun
[10:17] - More knowledge, more sorrow
[13:24] - Achievements assessed: still vapor
[15:13] - Main thesis: gain vs. gift
[17:25] - Three floors and the skylight
[21:52] - Busy world that never arrives
[22:37] - When roles become identity
[25:25] - The trap called “gain”
[30:42] - Enjoying vapor as gift
[38:07] - A small step of obedience
[41:05] - Call to trust this year

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading
- Ecclesiastes 1:1–2:11

Observation questions

In Ecclesiastes 1:2, the key word is “hevel.” What everyday images were used to make “hevel” feel real and memorable? [06:10]
According to Ecclesiastes 1:3 and 2:11, what question is asked about “gain,” and how does the Preacher answer it?
What repeating cycles in creation are listed in 1:4–7, and how do they set the tone for life “under the sun”?
In 2:1–11, list the experiments the Preacher ran (pleasures, projects, wealth, status). What verdict did he reach?

Interpretation questions

If the Bible is not condemning work, wisdom, or pleasure themselves, what is it critiquing about the human chase for “gain”? [25:25]
How does the “three floors” lens help someone hold together life’s absurdity (ground floor), life as gift (second floor), and life before God (third floor)? [17:25]
“In much wisdom is much vexation” (1:18). What kind of knowledge today can load the heart with more sorrow, and why might that be? [10:17]
If identity cannot rest on roles that change, how should a change in job, parenting stage, or influence be viewed so the soul doesn’t capsize? [22:37]

Application questions

Name one “if I just get this, then I’ll be okay” item in your life. Bring it to Jesus in prayer and trade grasping for trust. What small, concrete act of obedience will you take this week in that exact area? [38:07]
Think of a role that has become your name (parent, boss, student, caregiver). What would it look like to hold that role with an open hand and anchor your name in Christ? What practice could help you remember that when the role shifts? [22:37]
Pick one gift to enjoy this week without turning it into a savior (a meal, a walk, a hobby, a conversation). How will you receive it with thanks and not grasp it? “When you trust God, even vapor can be a gift.” [30:42]
Where has your news/knowledge diet raised your anxiety or anger? What boundary or rhythm could you set to seek wisdom without taking on more vexation? [10:17]
Choose one ordinary task you do “under the sun” (email, dishes, commute). How can you do it “before God,” in allegiance to Jesus, so it isn’t in vain? Share a simple plan for this week. [31:21]
Have you picked a number, title, or milestone that you think will finally make you safe? What would it look like to open your hands and entrust that to Jesus today? Who will you tell for gentle accountability? [34:21]
Is there someone you can love this week more than you love the outcome or your status? What is one concrete way you can choose people over outcomes? [26:27]

Sermon Clips

But, you know, if you're back for fifths or sixths or sevenths, you know, you're like, hey, hold on, man. That's not really going to solve anything for you. That's not going to do it. So we want to eat things in the presence of God, in the presence of his family, feast and all these things, but there's something that we wanna grab ahold of and make it work for us. And he says, good luck. Good luck. It's that's not the way Earth works. That's not the way life under the sun works. You don't just grab it and then hold it and put it in your pocket. [00:14:14] (29 seconds) #NotForGrasping

or at least my words around his words, but life is absurd. And you look at the vapors, like, I just can't seem to grab enough to make it really work for me. That's kind of that 1st Floor. But then life is a gift, and, oh, life is accountable to God too. So I need to live in the fear of the Lord realizing life is a gift even in the midst of this kind of ground floor of absurdity. And that's what I want to do as we kind of walk through this. [00:18:01] (30 seconds) #LifeIsGift

He tested it all, and everything you and and every category you and your neighbors have tried and everything you're doing, he's tried it all, and there's we're still chasing it. And he's like, no. It's it's actually just chasing wind. Go chase it. Just go. See what happens. See what happens. And so we're not saying that that, wisdom is bad or work is bad or even that pleasure is bad. He's not saying that. He'll he'll tell us to enjoy them. The problem is gain. [00:24:56] (32 seconds) #ChasingTheWind

And and so maybe I could just be a friend to you at this point. And if you're chasing it, just know that that not only will they not know, they probably won't even notice. It's really a lot in your head. And so we're gonna need to find a way to build a life around Jesus and around that top floor view, which is accountability to God that does good for other people, works hard in the lane that God's given you, and does all those things, but you don't lean on it for your identity. That's a real big struggle. [00:26:22] (34 seconds) #IdentityInChrist

I've got the app of the day. I've got the game of the day. I've got this the you know? And even when football season's over, there's gonna be reruns. I mean, you're gonna figure this out. There will be a way to just dopamine load for the entire year. You're gonna be just it's gonna be great. Right? Don't would be one of my thoughts. So the Kohala is saying this isn't evil stuff. This is good stuff. But when taking in those doses actually really ruins you. [00:29:47] (31 seconds) #DopamineDangers

When you chase gain, you're chasing the wind. When you when you trust god, even vapor can be a gift. It's not the thing you can grab, but it's the thing you can enjoy. So when you chase gain, you're chasing the wind. You can feel the rush. That's great. You're enjoying you're enjoying the rush. You can feel it. You can hear it, but you can't bottle it. And it doesn't mean life is pointless. It doesn't mean you give up on your New Year's resolutions. You just you need to change that script in your head. This is why I'm doing this. [00:30:32] (44 seconds) #TrustOverGain

This is what this is what I'm looking for. I can actually receive these things as a gift. In fact, we looked at this last week. If you wanna go back and listen to a sermon, kinda looking forward and thinking about everything we do in the name of Jesus is not done in vain, not vanity. If if the things that you do as unto the lord, the feasts that you have, the the the people you invite into your life pour into them and and the fellowship of a family of god. As we do things in the name of Jesus, those things are those count. They just don't count here. [00:31:17] (34 seconds) #GiftsAsWorship

I'm I'm loving some aspects of this winter, but when the valley is filled with fog, can't do much with the fog. It's kinda pretty. You can enjoy it. Chasing after it, it's just gonna disappear right in front of you. So let's be those people who, in in allegiance to Jesus, just pursue him and allow the things that he offers to us as being gifts taken in faithfulness to Jesus, but not something to be grasped and held to make us feel less insecure and less vulnerable. Let's just turn ourselves to him, and we can trust him. [00:40:34] (41 seconds) #PursueJesus

Ask a question about this sermon

Chatbot

What does hevel teach about life's ungraspability?

How is contentment different from pursued pleasure?

How does Jesus free us from chasing gain?

Chasing the Wind Life on the Treadmill

Devotional

Day 1: When Life Feels Like a Treadmill of Vapor

Day 2: When You Chase Gain, You Chase the Wind

Day 3: Pleasure Escalates; Contentment Receives with Gratitude

Day 4: Let Jesus Name You, Not Your Achievements

Day 5: From Gain-Game to Daily Trusting Obedience

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Chatbot

Chasing the Wind Life on the Treadmill

Share