I wrote this almost ten years ago. It still fits.

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.  If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective (James 5:15-16).

My friend died.

The one fighting cancer–I’ve mentioned him a time or two.  He battled like a champ for five months.  People prayed for him–lots of people.  Prayers offered in faith that the God of the universe was fully capable of raising John from his bed of pain and restoring him to light and life.  Prayers offered by men and women clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

I know…some of those prayers were mine.

And yet, last night I was at a meeting of people preparing his funeral.

This morning, I look at this Scripture and I…

sigh.

Is God a liar?  No, I can’t buy that.  He is the very nature of Truth.  His word declares it.  His Spirit confirms it.  If God is not truth, well then pack it in boys and girls, because it’s all dust.

Is God too weak to heal? See above.

So what am I not getting?  I understand that there are layers of meaning here, that James is talking about spiritual healing as well as physical healing.  Hence the discussion about confession and forgiveness.  But, ugh, that just feels like a cop-out, you know–like the kind of thing you tell an unbeliever who points out that people die all the time and prayers don’t help them.   I also get that prayers aren’t magic incantations.  We don’t manipulate God; what we pray must be in accordance with his will if he is to honor it.  But that brings up the whole “Why do we pray if God is just going to do what he wants anyway?” discussion, and…oy.

I read the commentary of one scholar who stated that while these verses are written as unconditional promises, they aren’t meant to be unconditional promises.

That didn’t help.

Beloved, I’m not trying to sour your orange juice this morning.  But these verses are tough for me.  Especially today.  Mornings like this are when I have to step back and remind myself that God is very big, and I am very small.  My friend John is providing “evidence of things unseen,” even at this moment.  In every way that truly matters, John is well and whole and has been restored to Light and Life.

But sometimes faith hurts

and trust is hard.

Someday, Beloved, it will all make sense.

Happy Friday

Is any one of you in trouble?  He should pray.  Is anyone happy?  Let him sing songs of praise.  Is any one of you sick?  He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord (James 5:13-14).

Is anyone else detecting a pattern here?

Look, I know you pray.

I pray, too.  I’m a prayer-guy from way back.

But

What James is talking about here is a level of prayer that, I gotta confess, is sometimes beyond me.  He’s not just giving a check-off list for when it is appropriate to pray.  James is talking about prayer as the go-to attitude for any situation.  

It’s a habit.

It’s a lifestyle.

As you head into your Thursday, take a moment for a little spiritual self-check. Ask yourself this question:

Is prayer something I have to think about doing

or

is it something I’m already doing?

Happy Thursday, Beloved.

Above all, my brothers, do not swear–not by heaven or by earth or by anything else.  Let your “Yes” be yes and your “No,” no, or you will be condemned (James 5:12).

James is reminding us here of something that Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount.  In Matthew 5, Jesus explained, “Do not swear…by heaven, for it is God’s throne, nor by earth, because it is his footstool…or by your head, for you can not even make one hair white or black…”

The point here is that when you swear by something you are using that thing as a guarantee of your actions or your veracity.  And…well…you don’t have that right.  It’s all God’s.  And by all I mean…well…

all.

None of it is yours to control or dictate.  Swearing by any of these things is like using someone else’s property to secure a loan, without their permission.

Not a good idea.

So, Beloved, don’t make promises you can’t keep. And don’t lay claim to that which is not yours. “The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

Including you

Happy Wednesday, Beloved.

Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.  As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered.  You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.  The Lord is full of compassion and mercy   (James 5:10-11).

Oh, fine, James–bring the prophets into this!  

I was just working up a good pity party–I mean, I can’t afford new carpet for my house, and my optometrist just said I need stronger reading glasses, and the air conditioning in my third car is on the fritz.  I’m feeling the suffering of the ages pressing down upon me, and you bring up Job?

Oy

Beloved, we all suffer.  Sometimes it’s a fluffy sort of suffering, what we’ve taken to calling First World Problems.

Sometimes it’s the real deal.

Regardless of what you’re faced with today, remember that the same God who carried those Old Testament saints  through now carries you.  You can bank on that.

Because, well, you’re his Beloved.

Now, go do Tuesday.  

By His grace…for His glory.

Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged.  The Judge is standing at the door!  (James 5:9)

The idiot who cut me off and hit their brakes when there was acres of room behind me deserves my honking horn.

The telehelp geek who can’t seem to figure out why my router won’t route deserves my sarcasm.

The #&@x*^#  who is in the drive-thru ahead of me and just ordered an eight-course meal for 35 people when all I want is a Quickie Burger Deluxe hold the tomato extra sauce deserves the fiery wrath of a thousand burning suns.

If God judges me as I judge others…

I am doomed.

I don’t wanna be doomed.

So…

perhaps a new measuring device is needed.

One that looks more like love

and goes by the name of Grace.

Happy Monday, Beloved.

Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming.  See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.  You, too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near  (James 5:7-8).

When I was a little kid my grandparents took me to see Zorba the Greek. 

I don’t know why…maybe they couldn’t find a babysitter.

I didn’t understand most of it, which is probably for the best, but one song planted itself deep in my brain. It is called The Butterfly, and it tells of a man who finds a cocoon.  The man is so excited to free the butterfly within the cocoon that he warms it in his hands, breathing on it to speed things along.  

I don’t know if that would work in real life, but it does in the song.

The cocoon opens, but the butterfly is not yet fully developed.  Instead of a beautiful, graceful creature, the man holds a tattered, unfinished life that dies in his hands.  His lament, 

All at once I discovered his delicate wings were all crumpled and torn,

When he still wasn’t ready I had made him be born

haunted my little kid self, and has stuck with me since.  

Beloved, your Lord has a plan.  A plan for your life, and a plan for this world.  He hasn’t forgotten you, and he hasn’t cast you aside, and he hasn’t put you on the back burner until he gets around to you.

He is thinking of you constantly, and he is asking you to be patient while his plan unfolds.

Trust him, Beloved.  He’s worth the wait.

Happy Friday.

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.  Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire.  You have hoarded wealth in the last days…You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence.  You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter…(James 5:1-6)

Wow…I’m kinda glad now that I didn’t win the lotto.

Look, money in and of itself is not the problem.  In fact, I’m thinking of setting up a crowdfunding account to prove the point.  You can help me demonstrate that, even with a few million dollars in my account, I will remain sweet and cuddly me.  Kind of a spiritual experiment. Whaddaya say?

Yes?

No?

OK…

The problem isn’t having money.

The problem is loving it

relying on it

living for it

worshipping it.

James makes it abundantly clear that those who invest their lives in physical wealth will find that investment wasted.  

So, Beloved…what’s your investment plan?

Happy Thursday.

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins  (James 4:17).

There are sins of commission…and of omission.

Once upon a time, I had three friends.  I’ll call them Susan and Sally and Sam (names have been changed to protect the innocent…and the guilty).  Susan and Sally saw that the weather was getting very cold at night, and they knew that there was a large population of homeless in their community.  Susan and Sally wanted to collect some blankets, make some sandwiches and coffee, and go minister to people.  The girls did not feel entirely safe about going into this area alone at night, so they decided to ask Sam to come along.  Sam was a strapping young man fully capable of protecting his friends and lugging heavy loads of coffee and blankets and ministerial whatnot.  So, Susan and Sally asked Sam to come with them and minister to the poor, and Sam said…

“I’ll pray about it.”

As it turned out, “I’ll pray about it” was a handy euphemism for, “I have no intention of doing what you ask, but I wish to sound spiritual and avoid looking like a selfish ninny.  I shall now hide from you until this whole unpleasant situation goes away.”

God will bring you an opportunity to glorify him today.  What will you do with it?

Happy Wednesday, Beloved.

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 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.”  As it is, you boast and brag.  All such boasting is evil  (James 4:16).

How is it boasting and bragging to make plans?  I mean, we’re supposed to be intentional with our lives, are we not?  We shouldn’t just drift. Doesn’t God honor the go-getter, the goal-setter, the man-with-a-dream? 

Yes…and also not so much.

See, it’s the Tower of Babel all over again.  If you read Genesis Chapter 11, you might get the idea that God punished humanity unfairly.  I mean, folks were building a great city, and a mighty tower to go with it, and God brought it crashing down.  What, is God anti-technology?  Or is it that the Mighty One feels threatened by Man’s achievements?

You’re getting close.

Look, there is nothing we can do to threaten God, but much that we can do to threaten our relationship with God.  The people in Genesis were building their tower, not God’s.  They were looking for their glory, not his.  Humanity had a plan, but it was a plan that excluded God, and he wasn’t about to let that stand.

So, what of your plans, Beloved?

Do they originate in a desire to glorify God…or you?

Do they take into account God’s sovereignty…or seek to establish your own?

Will these plans, if successful, bring you closer to God, or push you away?

Think about it.  I’ll see you tomorrow…if it’s the Lord’s will.

Happy Tuesday, Beloved

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.

Somewhere out there is a man 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 not make plans, since they can all go “Poof” in a heartbeat?  Should we live for the moment, wild and free and heedless of the future?

Uh, no.  ‘Cause we have mortgages 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 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.