NIV: 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. 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. Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.
The Message: And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, "Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we're off to such and such a city for the year. We're going to start a business and make a lot of money." You don't know the first thing about tomorrow. You're nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, "If the Master wills it and we're still alive, we'll do this or that."
It was the custom in those days to travel from city to city, carrying your goods on the backs of camels, selling and buying in each city you went to. These words seem to be specifically aimed at those people, who plan ahead which city they are going to go to, what goods they are going to buy/sell. But in actual fact, these words are just as applicable to each one of us. After all, how many times do we plan ahead, work out what we are going to do tomorrow, where we will be, what we will do? I mean, I have a to do list as long as my arm, and the number of times I talk about all the jobs I am going to do tomorrow, the plans I have, how my work is going to go.....
Yet how do we know what will happen tomorrow? Our lives are fleeting, anything could happen tomorrow. For instance, I am currently on holiday with my family, and no matter what plans we may make for tomorrow, where we are gong, what we are going to do, whether we are walking up Snowdon (we're staying in Wales!), visiting caves or an historic castle, much of it depends on the weather. It is no fun going walking up Snowdon in pouring rain, and a visit to the caves depends on whether they are flooded or not due to heavy rain. Then again, if it is a beautiful sunny day, a trip to the beach might be the preferred option.
We can plan all we want, but nobody really knows what tomorrow holds.
Then when you look at those traders who are planning where they are going, what they are going to do, where they will stay and for how long, when you consider our plans as a family for going out tomorrow, where does God fit into the equation? What consideration do we, I give to Him when I make all my plans for tomorrow?
Life is fleeting, here today and gone tomorrow. We could get knocked down by a bus tomorrow, of become seriously ill. There could be floods, earthquakes, all sorts. James refers here to our lives being like a wisp of fog or mist. Well, just take a look at the morning mist if you are up early enough to catch it. What happens to the mist? It is here one minute, and gone the next, just like our lives.
Look at what Job has to say:
Job 7:7 Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. (NIV)
And Solomon too had something to say about life:
Ecclesiastes 1:14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (NIV)
We need to get our priorities right, to get our hearts right with God and to focus on Him, not on the things of this world. The people, like one of my sons, who tell themselves there is no god, are only fooling themselves. We need to realise that life is fleeting, we are only here in this earth for a relatively short time, and then there is all eternity ahead of us. Take a good look around you at all that you can see. Look at the plants, the trees, the birds, the sky, the sun, the moon and the stars. Did they all really just happen by chance, the result of a big bang? If there was nothing there in the first place, then what caused the big bang? If we are all just the result of evolution, why is there so much variety?
If there really is no god, then you need to be absolutely certain in your own mind of how the earth, the universe and all that is in it came about, because you are risking your eternal life.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 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 . (NIV)
God has placed eternity in our hearts. Each one of us has an inborn sense of there being something more, and many of us spend our lives trying to find what it is that will bring us peace, security, happiness. But true happiness can only come from knowing God. You can't find it by sleeping around, drinking yourself into a stupor every night, or by taking drugs. Working every hour under the sun to make a fortune will not bring happiness as money brings its own problems. Following false religions will only fill that God shaped hole in your heart for a moment, because the only way to God is through Jesus:
John 14:6 Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. (NIV)
So when making your plans for tomorrow, when considering what you will do, where you will go, give some thought to God. Put Him at the centre of your life, not the periphery (assuming He is in your life in the first place....).. Seek His will for your life, ask Him what you should be doing. But if God isn't in your life, if He does not factor into any of your decisions or thought processes, something or someone that you never even think about, isn't it time you gave some thought as to whether He really exists or not? Because if He does, and if Jesus is the only way to God, just what are you doing with your life?
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