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Out Of Control

             Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. (Proverbs 27:1)

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.” 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 4:13-14)

This is where I am. It’s so where I am. I’ll admit I’m a control freak. I like things to be settled. I like feeling like I am not drowning in the details of my life. I like thinking that I know what I’m supposed to be doing. I don’t know whether I actually boast about tomorrow, but “Hurry up! Not Yet!” and “Just roll with the punches” are not my favorite conditions.

I’ve gotten accustomed to what I call the Abraham bit – going to a country I don’t know, but that doesn’t mean it’s comfortable. And today’s passages don’t oppose our wanting to feel some control. But they tell us that we must remember that our control is not absolute. We can’t plan for everything, and we’re foolish to try. On September 10, 2001, I’m sure people had plans. I know that early in 2015, I didn’t plan to quit work to take care of Dad. At the end of 2019, I wasn’t planning to head down the path I’m on – a path demanding huge changes in my life.

And I’ve made some measure of peace with each of those changes. They and others like them have been the right thing to do. I have told God, “Not my will, but Thine,” and “I bow the knee even though it makes me say ‘ouch!’” But that doesn’t mean that I don’t stub my toes as I try to walk through the “dark” of the unknown immediate future. It just means that what these verses teach is wise.

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