Boasting About Tomorrow
I had a family yard sale planned and I’ve been boasting about it, promoting it, soliciting others to join me, and preparing for it for over a month. At least two or three times a week, I posted an announcement or some practical reason others should think about having one themselves. I tried to make it fun and keep the team on task so we wouldn’t be overwhelmed at the last minute. The 2-day event is scheduled for tomorrow …and it’s supposed to not just rain, but thunderstorm.
Every time something like this happens, it makes me step back and evaluate what I’m doing and what God may be saying to me. Yesterday, I realized that even though I always knew it could rain, I moved forward as if it would not. I promoted my yard sale definitively for June 11 and 12. Now, I’m not so vain to believe God made it rain just to teach me a lesson, but nonetheless He taught me a lesson.
I remember several years ago, I would include in all announcements some variation of, “Lord willing” or “if the Lord says so.” Someone I know asked why I always did that and why would I think that it wasn’t the Lord’s will. I basically responded to this effect: one, no one knows the mind of God. Even
though we may be sincere in what we have planned, it does not mean it’s the will of God. For example, while I’m disheartened by the pending weather that has jeopardized my outdoor event, others look forward to rain for crops, grass, and all the other good stuff rain does. Two, and most importantly, the Word of God says to do so. “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen on tomorrow…Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” (James 4:13-16).
I think I got away from it working in the government and trying to be politically correct. Rules would come along about conforming to certain standards on our email and voicemail. But, in my outside-the-government life, I have no excuse not to say, “Lord willing” or some variation. I’ve probably uploaded about a dozen posts boasting about my yard sale on June 11 and 12. Never once did I mention a rain date. Never once did I give due credit to God, my Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. All such boasting is arrogance and evil. I was clueless about the plan of God. But I am thankful for grace and mercy. As I humbly move forward with deciding on a new date, may I exercise the same wisdom I’ve been speaking about this week. May I not just know James 4:13-16, may I learn from this reminder, believe it, apply it, and share it. I pray my little testimony will encourage you to do the same, if it has not already been your practice to do so.
