"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." Proverbs 27:1
"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." James 4:13-14
"And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?" Matthew 6:27
Lately the world I encounter seems to be consumed by two ideas: You Only Live Once, so grab as much fun and excitement as possible or Live Life On Purpose because you are the master of your fate and you can achieve what you believe.
I do not much care for surprises. I am a planner, a person who does my best to analyze likely outcomes, and when possible, to run various scenarios to anticipate various outcomes. Surprises do NOT allow me to stay in my comfort zone. Is it any wonder that many verses in God’s Word, similar to the three shown above, convict me of how my comfort zone can lead me astray?
I hope you’re not similar to me in these ways, but maybe you share one or two areas of your life that hold challenges for you as they do me. Allow me to share with you some of the areas of my life in which God’s way conflicts with my way:
Employment vs. retirement. Should I retire? When? If I retire what will I do to occupy my time? What will my purpose in retirement be? If I retire from my current position should I pursue other work in “retirement”? Is it time to stop occupying my time with my employment? What is the best decision and what is the “best” scenario to pursue in order to achieve the “best” outcome? Certainly I can’t just up and retire without a solid plan in place? (When I was younger the considerations were still present regarding staying with one firm or moving to another that had recruited me.)
Health. I have a few health conditions, some relatively minor and some more serious. Should I have procedure “A” or procedure “B” or no procedure at all? Should I make plans to do “x-y-or-z” before or after a certain procedure? How much should these issues be factored into the calculations about retirement? What are the percentages relative to various outcomes? Certainly I must gather as much information as possible before making the correct decision, no?
Faith. Should I volunteer, or accept a nomination, to serve the body in a certain way? Do I need to quietly focus on my own growth or will I grow more by serving? Should I even be writing this or other devotionals? Maybe I should spend more time in studying and discipleship before I poke my head up anymore?
Here is the reality: THERE IS ONLY ONE “BEST” ANSWER TO ALL OF THESE. The downside to this reality, at least for me, is that the author of that answer is not me. The author of that “best” answer is, will be, and always has been the Author of all good things, my heavenly Father. I know it may be cliché, but I believe that what these verses are saying is “let go and let God.” I truly hate trying to distill important theology into a bumper sticker phrase, but in this case I don’t know how to better communicate the challenge. The challenge is to set forth a plan, based upon Godly precepts, and to then remain open to the fact that none of us knows what tomorrow will hold. So we are to meet the challenge to live in faith and do so on purpose, intentionally, with utter abandonment because we only live once, while always being open to God surprising us with a change of course at a moment's notice.
My prayer? God, more of You, less of me. God, help me be able to accept the surprises You have in store for me.