Life Is……But A Vapor (225)
Life Is………….But A Vapor
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
James 4:13-14
I am such a planner. Anytime we go on a trip, everything has to be in order before we go, when we pack and while we are gone. And it seems the more I try to put things in order the more they become chaotic.
I used to be this way. Severely. I made lists for everything. I organized and packed and worked with a methodical and structured way, it was almost insanity. I made my organization, organized.
Planning for the future, organizing, being clean and even being structured - are not bad things. They can be healthy, when they don’t take over our lives or create other disruptive behaviors.
My organization and structure made me anxious and made others who disrupted my organization uneasy if they didn’t follow along specifically. It created bad behaviors.
One of the major flaws in my planning was that God was never at the center of any of it.
Our goals, our plans and our future should all have God at the center. None of it is possible without Him. And when we make plans without Him at the center, we are asking for disaster. How many times have you made absolute and concrete plans only to have them shattered? Happened to me all the time. One of my favorite sayings that I coined was, “no expectation, no regret”.
I felt that if I didn’t have any expectations (because I was the sole proprietor of my plans), I wouldn’t have any regrets.
Now that God is in the middle of my plans - there is no disappointment. I look to Him for everything. And when I don’t, I am quickly reminded that I better switch gears.
So many times I was at ease navigating life and never thinking about pleasing God or being in His will. It’s crazy to think about.
I bought things, traveled, made major decisions and invested time and energy into things without ever considering, praying to or acknowledging God during any of it.
We are only here on earth temporarily. Yet, we are fascinated with putting all of our time and energy into our own self worth and making sure our families are prepared, cared-for and taken care of. How often do we spend time securing their real future - their eternal future?
I made excuses all my life. I struggled with addictions. I made bad decisions. I hurt people along the way. And one common theme was that God was not at the center of anything in my life.
He is the entire reason we are here. Not one single person that has ever existed has had a say-so in their existence. Not one. Even from the beginning. Adam and Eve were created by God. And since then we have all been created without our permission or request. So why do we take it so lightly?
The one thing we are reminded of in this set of verses is that our lives are complex, amazing, a gift and they are short. We will die, and for most of us, we will not control that either.
For the time that we are here, as Christian’s, we should be doing God’s will, not ours.
Our time here should be spent honoring and glorifying God with our actions and behaviors. We should be drawing people closer to God, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ and preparing people to teach others about the ways of the Lord (making disciples). We ought to love one another and love God with everything we have. This should be our existence, not ourselves.
Without God, none of us would be here and without Jesus Christ, none of us will be here.
“Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.””
James 4:15