“Look here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.’ Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”
What are you doing tomorrow? Next week? Next year? There’s a right answer that James provides us, and paraphrased it is your basic, “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise…” These verses are not about the exact words you use to describe your future plans. Rather, they are about your heart remaining very in touch with the reality that your every waking moment depends on God willing you to keep existing.
Two words stand out to me in this passage: boasting and pretentious. Sure, a few loud, arrogant people may come to mind. But do we really consider that we are pretentious simply by virtue of falling into self-reliance? Confession time: I am a prideful sinner who boasts about my own plans. There, I said it. And I do not say that flippantly or snidely. I genuinely see my own sin in these verses. (James tacks on one more area of sin that covers anything he missed: knowing the right thing and failing to do it… I’m sure we can all come up with a list on that one.)
How’s that going for you, anyway? Some who are in recovery often acknowledge that it was their own capacity that got them to hit rock bottom… It’s a lot easier from that place to realize that you stink at running the show. God’s got this. He’s got you. He wants to take care of you. So let him. Give up. Do less. Sit in his presence more and simply be. He will carry you to your next place. He will tell you which steps to take. He’s not trying to turn this into a guessing game. He just doesn’t find it necessary to give you as many specific directions as you may demand.