I've been reading James for a while. It has convicted me in many ways and at many times, which I have needed. So I've been camping out there, really reading it over and over, until my actions reflect the Christ-like behaviors described there.
Now, before I begin to read and muse, this is no exegesis. These are simply my thoughts.
"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.' 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."
This makes me think. I plan much of everything. Our culture is all about planning. College planning. Career planning. Retirement planning. Planning, planning, planning. How much of this is healthy and biblical? (I could go much farther into the idea of retirement and savings, and whether they are biblical, but I will stay on topic.) Is the problem with this planning the planning itself of the fact that the individual is planning what he will do to make money or become wealthy. This brings to mind the story of the man who built larger barns to store his forthcoming grain, the equivalent of wealth. Then he wanted to sit back and take it easy. But then God took his life. (Luke 12:16-21) We don't know when that day will be.
It is useless to plan and gain wealth, when it could all vanish from our hands in a moment, at death. We are so temporary.
On another note, I am trying to read a classic poem every day.
Now reading: "A Life on the Ocean" by Epes Sargent
This is what I'm listening to right now.
Now listening to: Mumford & Sons
God willing, I will be going to Europe this summer. Our world is so large, yet so small. It eclipses me, yet fits inside the wings of a plane. In preparation, I've begun praying for a different European country every day.
Country to pray for: Belgium
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