20240208

appear, disappear

James 4:13-17 (JDV)

James 4:13 Come on, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”
James 4:14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring – what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then disappears.
James 4:15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wants it, we will live and do this or that.”
James 4:16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All boasting like that is bad.
James 4:17 That is why to know the good and yet not do it is a failure.

appear, disappear

Last night (as I write this) Penny and I took a walk right after a rainstorm. There was still light enough to see the steam boiling up from the road and blanketing it. By the time we had finished the first half-mile, there was no steam anymore. It had appeared quickly and then disappeared. It was a short-lived phenomenon.

James tells his readers that since their lives are like that, then they should spend them in humility. They can make guesses about tomorrow, but they don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We have a Lord, and his desire and plan is what matters. We are his.