Tune Into The Lord Before You Make Those Plans…
Word-of-the-Day: ‘(13) 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.” (14) Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (15) Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”’ (James 4:13-15)
There are things in life that are expected, and things that are unexpected. Some things we can expect, but we don’t know when they will happen. We know church is in session every Sunday, so that is an ‘expected expectation’. Very easy to plan and prepare for. (Wash up, and get dressed – don’t forget to put on your pants.)
A hurricane striking Florida is not a rare occurrence, but we don’t know if we’re going to have none, one, or multiple hurricanes this year, so hurricanes are ‘unexpected expectations’. We know it is inevitable that a hurricane will come our way, so we need to be prepared for them – especially the big ones that bring excessive wind, rain, and flooding.
But some years we get one, some years we get none (like in 2025), and some years we can get multiple ones (like in 2024). The size of the storm can be small and weak, or big and strong (Charlie in 2004 and Ian in 2022). We have a window when they come, between June and November, but we never know when they will come, or where they will hit, until roughly a week after they form in the Atlantic.
We can prepare for them as much as possible, but the outcome is often not known as there are many variables. Charlie came quickly but didn’t bring much rain, but Ian came, lingered a little bit, and dumped a large quantity of water and storm surge that created severe flooding in some areas while others remained dry. Depending on location, some homes were damaged and some not at all; all were affected by power outages, but some had power restored in hours, some in days, others in weeks. We were prepared to secure the home from the wind, and the power to be out for several days, but the flooding of our streets and power outage lasting nine days were not things we could plan or prepare for.
Beyond storms, there are items that are ‘unexpected surprises’. It can be a sudden onset of illness to oneself or a loved one, or a breakdown of a car or home appliance. We can somewhat prepare to mitigate such surprises; setting aside money or a credit card for such emergencies, but sometimes a medical issue can be long-term, or an item may not be repaired but needing replaced, and can overcome what we’ve imagined we would need.
Often, we don’t focus on preparing for what can go wrong, but what we would want to do, like a vacation or a business venture. James 4:13 states as such; we make plans to go somewhere, to enjoy the sites and atmosphere of a given location or anticipate a business opportunity that our skills can take advantage of. Our plans may not be bad or evil, but sometimes we may not request God’s guidance in making those plans but act on our own volition without Him.
But James, the ‘half-brother’ of Jesus, and a son of Joseph and Mary, in verse 14 provides the insight that we all should consider when making plans and preparations; no matter how much we plan and prepare, we don’t know what will really happen. How could someone, who had moved to Hawaii in the summer of 1941 to open up a surfboard shop on Oahu, have anticipated their business would collapse and fail, not due to anything they did wrong, but by the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 which they could never predict on their own?
God’s plan and His will always will supersede ours. If we are in tune with God, and we are willing to listen, the Holy Spirit can steer us away from such calamities, if it is for His will to be done. James 4:15 gives us this hint of obedience to follow God and be in tune with Him; if we understand that history and time follow the Lord’s plan, then we should live in the accordance of His will and follow the directions given to us through the Holy Spirit. If we inquire on what the Lord’s plans are for us and our lives, He will often give us the knowledge and hints to make the right moves, even if we may not be given the complete outcome until it occurs.
There are things we do not will happen; I may make plans to go eat out, but I may never make it to the restaurant because my car won’t start. But what I do know is this; Jesus is returning for His bride, the body of His Faithful Believers that comprise His Church. We don’t know when, and we fully don’t know exactly how, though there are ‘hints’ in the Biblical record.
This retrieval, often referred to as the Rapture, is one of those unexpected expectations – a hope provided of what will happen to remove us from the burdens of sin and mortal life, for the perfect eternal life with Him and the Father. Romans 12:1-2 say it best, to be in God’s will is to live in Him and for Him, not conforming to the world and its desires but conforming to Him. The details of the future may not be known, but we know our future – our best and perfect future – is all in Him.
