James 4:13-16 (ESV) 13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-- 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
In recent weeks, a few phone calls have thrown me off of my game and changed my plans. I was planning to write one blog post, and an unexpected phone call changed that completely. That call reminded me that the world is often dark, and people often struggle with sorrows they feel are impossible to share. For me, it meant my day changed, and I wrote a different article. It meant much more for that person.
A second phone call made this article come together in my mind. I just got off the phone with someone getting some tests done. Depending on the outcome, a lot could change for this person.
A third phone call I received changed my plans on Saturday, February 8th during a training session with GCC staff and leaders. It was the call that told me my last aunt died, the last of a whole generation except for my mother. That meant the following Saturday would be spent with family, and that Pastor Tag would give a sermon on a text I had planned to preach.
These three phone calls reminded me of the brokenness and frailty of our human experience. James reminds us of the wisdom of humility about the future. We often speak of our future plans with such certainty; often, it is even pride and boasting underneath. He reminds us with great insight: “you do not know what tomorrow will bring.” We make plans, but God’s plan for our lives takes priority. This side of Christ's second coming, there is a measure of difficulty, suffering, and even death.
I’m one of those dinosaur-types that reads the newspaper. I do gander at the obituaries most days, in part to see if anyone I know is there. Recently I found out that a former neighbor had died at 49 years old of cancer. Caron and I went to see them at the visitation. It was so wrong to see a woman with two children in her home laid to rest. I feel like much vitality is left in my life, but every day I see people younger than I who have come to the end of their lives. James' wisdom seems all the more profound in light of those readings. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
So do we live in morbid fear? Do we live in anxiety of that phone call or text or email that will shatter our lives? I think of Paul’s words in Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Paul was in prison awaiting trial and a potential death sentence. He was eager to depart and be with Christ. He was willing to stay and find the richness of life in Christ. I’m not saying we don’t experience great fear in those scary moments. I am saying that we steady ourselves in Christ. I am saying we find our life first and foremost in our daily experience of Him through faith. It prepares us for the uncertainty of tomorrow. It steadies when trials rock our world. It readies us for that day when He calls us home with Him.
In Him,
Don