I'm a planner by nature, so I've been putting this trip together for a couple months now. Or at least I've been trying to. For the first month of trying, not a whole lot happened. I made calls, sent emails, utilized Facebook, etc., but after weeks of trying, I had only 1-2 appointments set up to show for it. At that point I started getting frustrated...
I've been working hard at planning this trip and all I have to show for it is two meetings?? I've done everything I could! I planned, prioritized, diligently contacted existing donors... what more could I have done??
And then I read James 4.
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit" - yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16 ESV)Oh.
Apparently James was familiar with guys like me. Indeed, I was all but saying, "Next month I will go into such and such a town and spend a week there and raise funds and be finished!" Yet the Lord, speaking through James, will not let me be content with so small a thing. James instead recommends, "If the Lord wills, we will live and..." Living wasn't even in my original plan (only "trading and making a profit" was). So if I abandon my tiny goals, I can embrace a greater plan - God's plan - that involves life. The alternative is to embrace evil and boast in my arrogance.
Hard choice, huh?
If the Lord wills, tomorrow's week-long trip will accomplish all my goals. But even if it doesn't, it's only because God has something better in store for me.
What are you planning to do today or tomorrow?
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