Is God Your Co-Pilot?
James 4:14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
The world is good at providing the distraction of planning. It is good at providing a multitude of diversions for our attention. Our days are filled with careers to grow or jobs to suffer through. It is filled with meetings and deadlines; responsibilities and drudgery. The mornings give way to the afternoon, spilling over into the evening. Before we know it, the next day has arrived to consume our time again with more things to plan and organize. Just trying to get through the day. Just working for the weekend. Just hoping next year brings what you felt was sorely lacking from this one. Noted Composer Hector Beriloz once quipped, " Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils." And so it goes. The illusion sometimes is that we always have plenty of time. There will be time to do this or that. Time to say this or that. But tomorrow is promised to no man.
This verse from the Book of James outlines the true illusion of time and how fragile our lives ultimately are. It should remind us the importance of having God in control. We tend as humans to focus on the time we are given here on earth; on the temporal instead of the eternal. This is reflected in Ecclesiastes:
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3: 11
God has set eternity in our hearts but we can be so easily distracted. Working in the James verse the first thing God is telling us is that we do not even know what will happen tomorrow. We can try to plan for tomorrow. Set up retirement accounts, plan how we will spend our so called "golden years" and sit at work waiting for the day the pension kicks in. We can dream that we know what will happen tomorrow. We can make bold predictions, map out our lives, and set our course. But God is reminding us here that we do not truly know what tomorrow brings. The bible tells a story of a certain rich fool who planned ahead within himself. He had produced an abundant crop; more than he had room to store. He thought to himself that he would tear down his barns, build bigger ones and then kick back and relax and take it easy. Live the good life. Enjoy retirement. Here was the response from God:
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' Luke 12:20
Is it wrong to prepare and plan ahead? Of course not. Is it wrong to be prudent and wise with our abundance? Of course not. What made the rich man, a rich fool, was that his plans did not include God. He prepared for himself. He did not even recognize that the abundance was provided by God. He planned as if he was in control of tomorrow. God is in control beloved. We do not know what will happen tomorrow. But fortunately, He does...
