Life and the Uncertainty of the Future

Man is many respects are paradoxical beings. His powers are capable of an almost infinite expansion. There are no limits to the range of his knowledge or the ideals that exist within him. He can contemplate things material and immaterial, past or present. He can explore earth in its deepest strata, the numberless things on its surface; the air we breathe and the heavens above are all open to his investigation. Man can chronicle the history of all past ages; form his system of ethics or philosophy, and detail with miraculous precision the rise, progress and ruin of dynasties and the fall of empires. Perhaps, even more astounding is that man can analyze distinctly the laws of life, and can show in the aggregate the principles of longevity. Oh how great and marvelous are the powers of man.

Yet, of all the wonders known to man, or is capable of being known at some point in time, there is one all-important subject of which man is absolutely and totally ignorant; the future. This, God chose to reserve for Himself. It is one of His secrets. And it is in regards to this "unknowingness," this uncertainty of the future that the Epistle of James confronts us with sharp and thought provoking realities.

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." James 4:13.

Certainly, this charge is true of all of us. It is unfortunately the rule and not the exception because we see and hear it all too often. Everywhere men are making plans and arrangements for the future as though they were in control of it.

Why are we prone to think this way I wonder. Some may suggest that it is due to worldly absorption, a lack of reflection, an inconsiderate levity of spirit, all of which results in an established presumption.

Am I recommending that we should not plan? Of course not. But I also think it is of paramount importance to understand the demarcation is very thin between the right and wrong of it, if you will. Surely, it is appropriate and proper in thousands of things to act as if we expected to live tomorrow, and for many years to come. This must, in one sense, be recognized. Yet, in any sense, we must recognize and realize that life is short; it is fleeting, and each year w manage to somehow survive, we have only narrowed the margin of life and made the things we calculated on in the future, less certain.

Thus, James continues,

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. James 4:14.

Within the framework and context of time as we know it, tomorrow is a period close at hand. Yet, none of us knows how it will begin, progress or end. What incident will occur, we cannot even begin to imagine. Whether health, or sickness, safety or danger, joy or sorrow. It may be a day of unexcelled happiness or of unexplained agony of spirit. Tomorrow may be filled with all that can bless us, or connected with all that can distress us. Its hours and moments may all bear witness to the liveliest enjoyment, or the most soul wrenching grief. Therefore, there can be only one conclusion: life is uncertain.

For what is life? Life is vapor, a mist that is here for a moment and then disappears off the face of the earth. Human life is not as a mighty oak, but as grass. It is not like rock or iron, but as vapor, a breath of wind scatters it, and it is gone. This is true of all humanity; not only the delicate, but also the robust, not only the aged, but also the young, not only the sickly but also the strong and vigorous. After all, the longest life is but a short drama. We enter onto the stage of life, play out our roles of good or evil, take our final bow, retire and seen no more. From this end, no man is exempt and no man excused.

This truth has been admitted, pondered, illustrated, and expressed by philosophers, moralists, politicians and theologians of all through the ages. It is presented to us in the proverbs and maxims of all nations and of every age in our world history. It has been expounded and preached and written about by the prophets and preachers down through the centuries. Any yet, how feeble the apparent impression it makes on our hearts and lives.

Perhaps today, we will listen to God through His word as He advises us,

Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." James 4:14.

As a Christian, I believe that our lives are contingent on the will of God. He is able to sustain the weak and ailing or cast down the strongest. He and He alone will decide the question. His decisions are not whimsical, or capricious or arbitrary, but in His perfect, holy, infinite wisdom. God and God alone, as the Governor of the universe, Who decides the condition and tenure of our lives. He abridges or lengthens, extends or concludes our temporary status here on planet earth.

Therefore, to be so busy planning for the future as to forget Who holds the future, is to border the ridiculous because even nature teaches us this undeniable truth. All the mutations of earth, the varying seasons, the falling leaves, the withering flowers, the ending day, all should impress upon us this solemn truth. Therefore, it may behoove us to say, "If the Lord wills, I will live and do such and such."

Let me caution my Christian brothers and sisters to be aware of a presumptuous self-confident spirit. We should feel and act as strangers in a strange land. We cannot allow ourselves to become too comfortable here because this is not our home. We do not want to become too attached to the temporal because the eternal is not far off.

What do you think about it Job?

He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure. Job 14:2.

Any comments Isaiah?

"All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:6-8.

All those proclaiming the Christian faith are pilgrims here on earth. This is not our resting place. Life is a journey towards the eternal world. Every day abridges it and brings it nearer to a termination.

Our ancestors and many of our friends and loved ones have finished it. They have reached the city of habitation. But we are still sojourners, pitching our tents today and elsewhere tomorrow. In just a short while, we too will join those who have preceded us across the river Jordan.

It is my heartfelt prayer that we make our daily desire and unswerving purpose to glorify God as we work the works of Him that sent us and do well to our fellow man.

Though the future is uncertain, the great consolation of God's people is that even amid all the mutations of earth, the word of our Lord abides forever.