Go ahead and plan. But you don’t know what tomorrow may bring
By Dean Collins
I would love to hear your stories that confirm the truth of today’s title. Parents, executives, church planters, politicians, and coaches all know too well that you can build a great strategy, focus on the fundamentals, work toward the right balance of discipline, and evaluate the market, the opponent, and the weather. But you simply cannot control the outcomes, no matter how hard you try.
Analysts spend hundreds, even thousands, of combined hours reviewing forecasts, studying the competency and temperament of management teams, and assessing market conditions. And sometimes the batting averages of the analysts are pretty good, but they are never perfect. There are simply situations, people, conditions, and obstacles that no one saw coming. Pandemics, viruses, and election results are all recent reminders that there are many outcomes we simply cannot imagine.
Pride or humility?
James seems to give warning to his readers in chapter 4 concerning how we approach our calendar. However, if we look at the verses before and after 4:13 we learn that James is less concerned about what we write in our calendar for today and tomorrow and more about the arrogance that leads us to believe we’re in control of what happens in each moment.
Just a few verses earlier we read this: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. . . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
Time and time again we see the tragic outcomes of kings, leaders, and false prophets who were sure of their victories, their plans, and their predictions, but their end wasn’t at all what they predicted. There is only one who knows what tomorrow will bring. James isn’t telling us we can’t make plans, but he is reminding us who has authority over all things, including the outcomes.
Our plans or his?
One of the fallacies of some believers is in believing that just because we are committed to following Jesus, everything we do will be instantly successful. We have no such guarantee. Our story is a piece of a bigger tapestry that God is weaving. As followers of Christ, we should always be prayerful and seek God’s will with the plans we make each day. And we must trust that God will grant us the wisdom to make adjustments when our plans are not his plans. Sometimes what is in our head and even written down on paper seems like the best thing, yet time, along with market conditions and a host of other interruptions, prove it wasn’t.
I have four hourglasses in my office, each a different size. I have had them for several years now. As much as it seems that time goes faster as I get older, each hourglass still runs for the same length of time it always has. But what James suggests is true; we are here for just a “mist” of time. And the right thing to do is to place our time and our lives in the hands of God to use us however he wills, to accomplish his greater purpose. And yes, God’s purposes for us are always greater than those we can dream up.
The proper attitude about today and tomorrow is simply this: humility. When we humble ourselves before the Lord daily, he will lift us up and use our offering, even our offering of our time, for his purposes. And his outcomes will be far greater than any we could have imagined.
Your time with God’s Word
James 4:13-17 ESV
Photo by Brian McGowan at Unsplash.com.
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