Lifespan
What are your plans for the future?
Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.' Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin. - James 4:13-17
What a depressing way to look at one's life.
While I agree with James that we should acknowledge the grace and goodness of God every day in our short lives, I wonder if focusing on the negative aspects of this lifespan makes sense.
If we expect to live for more than one tomorrow, we plan things, and we do things to make those plans come to fruition. If we wake up everyday thinking this could be the last day of our lives, who would bother to plan?
God had a good idea in keeping the length of our lives a secret. He wants us to strive for tomorrow, to be alive each day, yes, but to have dreams and hopes as well.
I don't believe James was saying we should abandon our dreams completely. Instead, he wants us to recognize God's gifts and be grateful for them. So, I guess we should thank God for today and for our undying optimism that tomorrow will come, so that we do great things in His name, everyday.
More to come...