Boasting
This week is on James 4:13-17:
Boasting about stuff you don't have yet is silly. James confronts the church about this in his letter, because people get ahead of themselves easily. It leads to disappointment, takes glory from God, and causes people not to trust those who don't do what they brag they're going to do. If you promise your daughter a pony, and then lose your job, are you going to conjure one from thin air? If you plan a vacation on the shore, are you going to hold back the tsunami with your outstretched hands? Unexpected things happen that are beyond our control.
James, as someone close to God, knows that God is master of all things, and that there's a lot we can't predict. We can plan based on what we know, or what we know we don't know, but we can't plan for stuff we don't even know that we don't know. Only God knows that stuff. And because you can only control what you can sense, only God is in control of our future in any absolute way.
We can still make plans. We have to. But as far as whether things will turn out as well as we hoped (or as badly as we feared, if that's how you roll) only God knows that. The future is not ours. We can still hope, and we can still talk about what we'd like to do, or what we're planning to do, but we can't decide what will absolutely happen. We shouldn't talk as though we can.
If God tells you something, on the other hand, then that is going to happen. God knows what the future is like, and has the ability to shape things so that they happen. We only see part of what's there. If we could see completely, only liars would break promises. The real estate market would be terrible in the year leading up to a hurricane. Nobody would go broke from a stock market crash. Everyone would be Christian.
We are loved and cherished by God, but we are also nothing. The scope of what we can predict and control, compared to the size of the universe, is so tiny that we might as well be blindfolded and hobbled as we stumble into the future. To act like it's all ours to decide is to take on the role of God himself. Trying to do God's job is not only pointless, but evil.
People make bold declarations for their lives, regardless of whether God has said anything on the topic at all. From their perspective, the future is secure. They can't think of anything that could go wrong, therefore nothing could go wrong. "I will go to college, graduate with honors, and get a job that pays $100k/yr." "I will be your boss in ten years." "I will be a missionary to Cleveland, and have a better church than anyone else there." In reality, you don't know what's going to happen, but you're talking like you do.
If God has declared something, hold onto it confidently. But if it's your plan, preface it in your mind with "If it's God's will..." That way, you keep in mind that you only know what you know, and not what you don't. And even some of the stuff you know probably isn't right. And in doing so, you also don't carve your grandiose schemes so deeply into your mind that you can't be directed to something better by God himself. God has done some amazing stuff, but mostly with people who don't mind having their plans interrupted. If you're hell-bent on taking a cruise, no amount of premonition will keep you from boarding the Titanic.
If it's God's will, we will live and carry out our plans and see our hopes fulfilled. That's a good thing. If not, and we're willing to accept it, we'll see different plans carried out, and have some wonderful surprises. That too is a good thing. The only bad outcome is one in which we aim for the cliff, not realizing that the bridge hasn't been built. When you plot your own course without looking up, that's what you end up with.
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.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. So then, if you know the good you ought to do and don’t do it, you sin.
Boasting about stuff you don't have yet is silly. James confronts the church about this in his letter, because people get ahead of themselves easily. It leads to disappointment, takes glory from God, and causes people not to trust those who don't do what they brag they're going to do. If you promise your daughter a pony, and then lose your job, are you going to conjure one from thin air? If you plan a vacation on the shore, are you going to hold back the tsunami with your outstretched hands? Unexpected things happen that are beyond our control.
James, as someone close to God, knows that God is master of all things, and that there's a lot we can't predict. We can plan based on what we know, or what we know we don't know, but we can't plan for stuff we don't even know that we don't know. Only God knows that stuff. And because you can only control what you can sense, only God is in control of our future in any absolute way.
We can still make plans. We have to. But as far as whether things will turn out as well as we hoped (or as badly as we feared, if that's how you roll) only God knows that. The future is not ours. We can still hope, and we can still talk about what we'd like to do, or what we're planning to do, but we can't decide what will absolutely happen. We shouldn't talk as though we can.
If God tells you something, on the other hand, then that is going to happen. God knows what the future is like, and has the ability to shape things so that they happen. We only see part of what's there. If we could see completely, only liars would break promises. The real estate market would be terrible in the year leading up to a hurricane. Nobody would go broke from a stock market crash. Everyone would be Christian.
We are loved and cherished by God, but we are also nothing. The scope of what we can predict and control, compared to the size of the universe, is so tiny that we might as well be blindfolded and hobbled as we stumble into the future. To act like it's all ours to decide is to take on the role of God himself. Trying to do God's job is not only pointless, but evil.
People make bold declarations for their lives, regardless of whether God has said anything on the topic at all. From their perspective, the future is secure. They can't think of anything that could go wrong, therefore nothing could go wrong. "I will go to college, graduate with honors, and get a job that pays $100k/yr." "I will be your boss in ten years." "I will be a missionary to Cleveland, and have a better church than anyone else there." In reality, you don't know what's going to happen, but you're talking like you do.
If God has declared something, hold onto it confidently. But if it's your plan, preface it in your mind with "If it's God's will..." That way, you keep in mind that you only know what you know, and not what you don't. And even some of the stuff you know probably isn't right. And in doing so, you also don't carve your grandiose schemes so deeply into your mind that you can't be directed to something better by God himself. God has done some amazing stuff, but mostly with people who don't mind having their plans interrupted. If you're hell-bent on taking a cruise, no amount of premonition will keep you from boarding the Titanic.
If it's God's will, we will live and carry out our plans and see our hopes fulfilled. That's a good thing. If not, and we're willing to accept it, we'll see different plans carried out, and have some wonderful surprises. That too is a good thing. The only bad outcome is one in which we aim for the cliff, not realizing that the bridge hasn't been built. When you plot your own course without looking up, that's what you end up with.
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