"You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a while and then vanishes." James 4:13-14
So I had one of those defeating few days last week where everywhere I turned another wave of turmoil, frustration, anger, and one of my personal favorites, wasted-time seemed to overtake me. At the height of my frustration I said to myself, "what's the point?" It is easy to become stagnated by our humanity's inability and simply lose sight of God's providential ability. In these moments it feels as if the best solution is to curl up like a baby, admit defeat and just do nothing until it goes away. Well if you are like I was and this is an option you are seriously considering, allow me to share a positive alternative. When I felt myself sliding headfirst into "defeat," I ran as quickly as I could to my solitary and safe place of prayer, which just so happened to be a literal closet. As I began to cry out to God and share (as if He didn't already know) what I was struggling with, it was not long before my Spirit began to declare who I was in God and soon all of those things that seemed to overpower me were not as large in my mind. God took his rightful place in my life and His greatness became paramount. I was able to get to a place of worship, receive instruction, and most importantly LIVE! We have got to be busy living lives that exhibit the greatness of God in the earth, not lives that are so weary and worn down because of our issues, problems and perhaps even our sins that have somehow become greater than God.
So what then is our response to this passage in James? In light of this truth, should we just sit in a "morbidity-soaked" stupor waiting for our personal clocks to stop ticking? After reading what James describes as the fragility of life, it is easy for us to throw up our hands and say whats the point of living?" If we are short-sighted and not lovers of the entire Word of God, we might miss Paul telling us in 1 Corinthians that whatever we do, must be done to the glory of God. We all must move beyond sitting and doing nothing because we are consumed with the imminent arrival of "the end of things," and get to the place of maturity in Christ where any and everything that we are "doing" is highlighting the preeminence of God. Pastor Francis Chan says it this way, "the point of our life, is to point to Him."
So I had one of those defeating few days last week where everywhere I turned another wave of turmoil, frustration, anger, and one of my personal favorites, wasted-time seemed to overtake me. At the height of my frustration I said to myself, "what's the point?" It is easy to become stagnated by our humanity's inability and simply lose sight of God's providential ability. In these moments it feels as if the best solution is to curl up like a baby, admit defeat and just do nothing until it goes away. Well if you are like I was and this is an option you are seriously considering, allow me to share a positive alternative. When I felt myself sliding headfirst into "defeat," I ran as quickly as I could to my solitary and safe place of prayer, which just so happened to be a literal closet. As I began to cry out to God and share (as if He didn't already know) what I was struggling with, it was not long before my Spirit began to declare who I was in God and soon all of those things that seemed to overpower me were not as large in my mind. God took his rightful place in my life and His greatness became paramount. I was able to get to a place of worship, receive instruction, and most importantly LIVE! We have got to be busy living lives that exhibit the greatness of God in the earth, not lives that are so weary and worn down because of our issues, problems and perhaps even our sins that have somehow become greater than God.
So what then is our response to this passage in James? In light of this truth, should we just sit in a "morbidity-soaked" stupor waiting for our personal clocks to stop ticking? After reading what James describes as the fragility of life, it is easy for us to throw up our hands and say whats the point of living?" If we are short-sighted and not lovers of the entire Word of God, we might miss Paul telling us in 1 Corinthians that whatever we do, must be done to the glory of God. We all must move beyond sitting and doing nothing because we are consumed with the imminent arrival of "the end of things," and get to the place of maturity in Christ where any and everything that we are "doing" is highlighting the preeminence of God. Pastor Francis Chan says it this way, "the point of our life, is to point to Him."
