In a Fog
August 5, 2020
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.”How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16 NLT
On January 1, 2020, did any of us plan for life to be just what it is right now? That is one thing we all have in common. Very little we predicted about 2020 has been reality thus far. The COVID-19 situation has changed everything. Jobs, school, health, vacations, life and death—so many things. The things we wrote in ink in our planners have been adjusted and changed, some of them many times over. This year has been, and continues to be, so uncertain.
That’s what Jesus said about life in general. We like things to be certain, and we live under the illusion of control, but that’s all it is. Predicting our future, even the end of this day, is like walking around in a fog. We don’t know what may happen before this day is over. Everything we think is certain and true can change. Our lives are uncertain. They themselves are like a fog—heavy and ever so present in the morning, but by afternoon they are vanished and gone. The longest life is over so quickly.
Jesus says that recognizing and embracing this truth is not a helpless act of resignation, it’s an empowerment of our cooperation with God for enacting the very best in our lives. Instead of boldly proclaiming what we are going to do and manipulating situations and resources to make it so no matter what, we get to work with God for the very best. We get to think and plan and dream, but we do it with God, not independently. We say, “If this is God’s will and He helps us work out the details, we believe this is what we are going to do.” Then, without angst or resentment, we work faithfully toward our goals with the complete awareness and willingness for God to interrupt, change, or halt us at any point. We are living life from His perspective, and we want only what He wants. Anything else is boasting pretentiously about things over which we have no true control.
- What are your hopes and dreams for the rest of 2020?
- Can you right now submit them to God and honestly live with peaceful acceptance if things don’t go as you hope?
- Make an out-loud commitment to trust today and all your tomorrows to Him. Practice saying, “If the Lord wills” or “Lord willing,” asking Him to help it become a natural reflection of your heart.