Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 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. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.
- James, the half-brother of Jesus, James 4:13-16
One of my favorite Christian songs is “Who am I” by Casting Crowns. The second verse and chorus go like this:
Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again?
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me?
Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
You've told me who I am
I am Yours
The words from James and the lyrics from this song serve as a reminder to me that I am not in control of tomorrow, but that I know the One who is, and I am His.
As many of you know, I was diagnosed with Renal Cell Carcinoma six years ago and had a kidney surgically removed, but the cancer metastasized into my lungs and adrenal glands. I recently shared with someone something I had previously shared several years ago with our congregation from the stage at our church: I believe with all my heart that God is going to heal me from the cancer in my body. I just don’t know if it will be in this life or the next, and I am okay with either one. Candidly, Pam does not get warm fuzzies when I say that, but we both trust God’s plan for us.
None of us know what tomorrow holds, but all that really matters is that we know who holds tomorrow.
I have a responsibility to make plans for the future, to be a good steward of the life and resources God has given me; but I cannot boast about what will happen in the future, for I am not in control of it. I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean, a vapor in the wind. However, I find great comfort in knowing that my God looks on me with love, hears me when I’m calling, catches me when I am falling, calms the storm in me, and reminds me of who and whose I am. I am His.
I don’t know what you are up against: loss of a loved one, out of work, a broken relationship, a terminal illness, mental health issues, chronic pain, a broken marriage or family, or whatever it may be, but I do know this: In multiple places in the Bible (just to be sure we don’t miss it), God promises that He will never leave nor forsake us. He is always with us, even when we don’t feel His presence. He is at work in you to draw you closer to Him and to trust Him for whatever the future holds.
I encourage you to make your plans for the future, but as Solomon reminds us in Proverbs 16:9:
A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.
- Proverbs 16:9
God is in control, and it is He who holds our future in His hands. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Pastor Ken