Richer Lives

What are your plans for the new year?

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. Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. - James 4:13-17, 5:7-11

Who would have thought this year would have turned out the way it did?

We assume we have time to plan, time to dream, time to fulfill the dreams we have, and yet we never really know, do we?

James wants us to focus on what we have and not on what we hope we will get.

All we have, he says, is from God, and if tomorrow is ours to claim, it will be because God wills it to be so.

We may say we believe that, but do we really?

Don't we plan as though tomorrow is guaranteed?  

Some say the pandemic was God's way of reminding us of our mortality, but I don't believe God works that way.  Neither does James.

God is always present in our lives, and it is we who fail to acknowledge Him, until the moment comes when we face death.  Then we cry out asking for help.

Please give us one more day, one more hour, one more moment.

But what about all the moments we had been given?  What did we do with them?

We shouldn't be in such a hurry to waste away the moments we have.  We should treat each one as if it is the only one we have.

If we do that, how much richer will our lives be?

Start now.

More to come...