Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this of that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you don’t 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.”  (James 4:13-14)

“The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley.”–Robert Burns

I guess we’ve all had “agley” days, days when Life intrudes on our plans.  It’s annoying, and frustrating, and sometimes painful.

And sometimes worse

I have a friend who is, quite literally, on his deathbed.  He is a young man, a good man, a man of God.  He had big plans for his future which did not in any way include cancer.

God’s plan did.  

So what, then?  Should we refuse to make plans, since they can all go “Poof” in a heartbeat?  Should we life for the moment, wild and free and heedless of the future?

Uh, no.  ‘Cause I have a mortgage and kids that really like regular meals.

That’s not where James is going here.  He’s just reminding us that our plans, like every other aspect of our lives, belong to God.  If we are his , we must acknowledge and welcome his power to shape our days as he sees fit. If we get caught up in working for the future, we gamble on a tomorrow that we may not get.

You have today, Beloved.  

You have now.

Spend it well.