TOMORROW MAY NOT COME

TOMORROW MAY NOT COME
James 4:13-17
"...What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (v.14)

WHEN JOHN LENNON, THE LEADER of the pop group "Beatles", was interviewed on a radio show in December 1980, he said, "I consider that my work won't be finished until I'm dead and buried and I hope that's a long, long time." A few hours later, outside his home in New York city, a young man approached him and fired four bullets at close range into him. Lennon was dead.

Nothing is certain about life except its uncertainty and brevity. James here addresses businessmen. Many Jews then, as now, were business people, and business travel was common (e.g. Aquila and Priscilla, Lydia, Acts 18.2,18;16.14). Setting dates, making plans for journeys, choosing destinations, deciding on duration of stay and purpose of visit, are all legitimate preoccupations. Planning is not wrong, but planning that leaves out God is.

Planning without God invariably leads to pride. "As it is," James says, "you boast and brag." (v.16). They speak as if they are masters of their destiny and have sovereign command of the future. In truth, life is uncertain. We do not know if tomorrow would come. Life is also transient. Tomorrow may come, but we may not be around to see it. Our life is like the morning mist which appears and envelopes the whole countryside. In a few hours, as the sun rises, it disappears into nothing. One moment it is everywhere, next it is nowhere. So is life.

The unpredictability and transience of life keep us mindful of our Creator and God. Under His providence we live, and move and have our being. To Him we must one day return and give account. All godly planning takes God into account. Some Christians, following the example of the apostle Paul (Acts 18.21; I Cor 4.19), make a practice of appending D.V. (Deo volente, meaning "God willing") to all their plans. This is commendable, and should become a settled attitude whether we expressed it in words or not.

James assumes that his readers already know what he has said. It is not new to them. The problem is that they have not put knowledge into practice. "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to so and doesn't do it, sins." (v.17). As he comes to the end of this section, he rehearses the theme of his whole epistle: "Do not merely listen to the word...Do what it says." (1.22).

Do my plans include or exclude God?