Are you rolling the dice?
The skies were flashing and booming like crazy yesterday as thunderstorms rolled through this part of Texas.
“Bad” weather has struck a big part of the country in the last few days. A news report told of more than 600 tornadoes that had taken 70 lives and destroyed 750 homes.
One story stood out to me. A lady had sold her home and would be closing on the sale the following day. Unfortunately, before that could happen, a tornado came through and completely demolished her home.
Can you imagine how all of her plans for life immediately changed, and in a big way! Although her plans likely changed, how it actually impacted her life is something we don’t really know. The physical structure of her home had been destroyed, which likely would have a significant financial impact (which might be offset by insurance), but she still had her life, the people in her life, and her employment. She probably also had her health. In a very real way, she still had a lot left that contributed to her life, she simply lost a housing structure.
Many people wrap their lives up in their plans for their life. If the plans succeed, they are happy. If their plans fail, they feel completely lost. They live circumstantially, giving control of their thoughts, emotions, happiness, and sense of well being over to however circumstances drive their lives. Living this way is like rolling dice rather than giving direction to life.
That’s because we cannot see beyond the current moment. We can wisely anticipate based on all the information available to us, but that’s nothing more than forecasting, just like the weatherman does with the information he gathers.
But just like the weatherman, sometimes we can get a forecast right, and sometimes they’re wrong!
It’s not so bad when we get the forecast wrong if we haven’t wrapped our lives around depending on getting the forecast right.
There’s a reason God created us with a limited capacity to see ahead, and that’s to teach us to rely on Him. We are not God, we don’t know what tomorrow will be like, or even if there will be a tomorrow. So God’s design is that we live within His will, by faith and trust in Him, and look to Him to unfold each day for us.
That doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t “plan ahead,” it simply means we should not place our hope and dependency in our plans for the future, but rather in the One who determines whether we have a future!
James put it this way, “Look here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog — it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.’ Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil” (James 4:13-16).
The wisest way to live life is by a “If the Lord wants us to …” approach. But that requires a real, intimate, daily reliance on the Lord. It requires trusting God with the direction of our lives rather than circumstances, or even ourselves.
But considering He alone can see anything and everything beyond this moment, it’s the only way of living that makes sense!
How are you living: by your own forecasts? By circumstances? Or by faith and trust in God?
Scotty
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