Boasting About Tomorrow

The Lord knows. He ALWAYS knows.

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.” James 4:13-14

These verses were not supposed to be my focus this month. I didn’t *plan* for them to be. And that, I suppose, is exactly the point.

When we set out to ask God to fill us with His wisdom regarding anger through the book of James, we can’t forget these verses, tacked on chapters after the warnings about our tongues. While we may not see the link initially, the bridge is obvious when you’re smack in the middle of realizing how what the day has brought was NOT in your plan.

I’m in Kentucky, at my stepmom’s bedside, navigating a cancer diagnosis and surgical recovery, and a medical system that is bent more on efficiency than compassion. I didn’t see myself being here, but here I am. And even more than that, the plans I am told I *can* have, well... those aren’t exactly something to hold to, either.

The surgical team game us a game plan and a timeline and no, it’s not happening that way at all.

I’m looking at my Dad, a nonbeliever, and I see brewing anger. He’s frustrated-- we all are-- but despite the deepest desires of my heart for him, he has no access to the kind of peace I can tap any time, any place, any circumstance. As a man walking without the assurance of salvation, without the comfort of Christ, all he has is what he can hold in his hands at the moment.

And friends, we hold nothing.

Knowing, that, my options are either anger (which solves nothing and only makes the situation more tense), or praying God’s will be done.

Join me in asking for the latter?

In Christ,

Heather