"13Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."
James 4:13-15
For the past few weeks, or months, (I cannot even recall when it started) my school has been putting the JC year twos through motivational talk after motivational talk, and all the while they trumpet these words to us: "You determine your future! You can succeed if you just believe in yourself!" I find it very easy to slip into that mentality, especially when the children of darkness are all around, and their self-sufficient attitude and pride can so subtly affect us, that we may not realise when we have become like one of them. I admit that there is value in these talks when they teach us to be disciplined and focused on our work, and the humanistic view of fate is, of course, what "works" for the children of this world. It is pleasing to their ears, and the best worldly wisdom has to offer.
Worldly wisdom, for all the benefits it may bring in this life, go only so far as this present life is concerned. In this matter of our fate, and success, it exalts man and makes man the master of his own fate. We are told to believe in our own abilities, that nothing we want will eventually elude our grasp so long as we have faith in ourselves. Very seducing. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. James slams reality right in our faces. How much do we truly control? Do we know what the providence of God shall bring upon us next year? Next month? Tomorrow? Not even in the next hour. Read the verses I quoted at the start again. See how the people James are addressing are making plans for their future, having such certainty about them, thinking that they will most definitely travel to another city, trade and earn profits. Then read his reply. It is almost as if he is telling them "Who do you think you are?" he confronts his readers with a cold, harsh fact: our life is only a vapour, appearing for but a fleeting moment, then vanishing away. Just like that, nothing more. It reminds us of two very pertinent characteristics of our life on earth: It is short, and it is fragile.
It is evident that we are not the masters of our own fate. For all of these people who had faith in themselves and eventually succeeded, there are, I reckon, countless others who did the same, yet ended up with a very different outcome. There is a God, and it is most certainly not you or me. We are subject to Him, for He is our Father, our Master, the Potter who moulds us, the clay. He told us that apart from Him we can do nothing. (John 15:5) This is He to Whom we must submit ourselves, and our goals. If the Lord wills, we shall be rich, and again, if the Lord wills, we shall be poor. Sometimes we go the way of Vanity Fair, and look for worldly success. But by the grace of God, He brings His sheep back. We are frail creatures, yet wilful. We crave and strive with much vanity, till He batters us with affliction, and breaks us, ever gently still, till we see that there are just too many things out of our control, and that our future is really not in our hands.
I am not saying that we should resign all worldly aspirations. Like James said, if the Lord wills, we shall live, and do these things that we hope to. But we must check ourselves as we go along, whether we are truly aiming to do well for the right reasons; whether we are glorifying God in our deeds and achievements, or for our personal glory. Whatever the case, one thing is clear in James' exhortation: be humble before God. We cannot but be humbled when we truly contemplate on His sovereign power, His infinite grace, His mysterious providence and His perfect justice, and then look at ourselves in our helplessness and dependency on Him for all things, even our very breath.
Our Lord Jesus Christ reminds time and time again, from the words of Scripture, that there is a life to come after this present one is over, and our fate in that next life is the one we should be particularly concerned about. His asks in Matthew 16:26, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" clearly the answer is: nothing at all. We must live this life with the next in mind. We, unlike the heathen, must consider the life to come, and make preparations for it, for regardless of our lot in this life, whether sickness or health, riches or poverty, if we are truly in Christ, we will certainly be gathered unto Him, and experience the joys of heaven forevermore. Such is the certainty that our faith looks forward to. William Guthrie was only forty-five, but his health broke, and his end was very hard. He suffered such violent pains that his friends were forced to hold him down. Between the attacks of pain he summoned the strength to say, "Though I should die mad, yet I know I shall die in the Lord." That is a bit hard to hold together. As if to say, "My pain may drive me out of my mind, but it cannot drive me out of Christ."
Amid the turbulent flood of uncertainties, our fate in this life is simply not in our control. We cannot know now how long we shall live, what we shall do, or what we shall attain to in this life. Yet this one thing is certain: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10) We must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12) and make our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10). The only certainty in this life is that death will come. (Or that Christ returns before we die. Either way, the effect is the same.) Let us then live with this in mind, and not be sucked into the attitudes of the ungodly, who strive after vainglory and treasures that do not last.
Asaph
