“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.” (James 4:13, 14, ESV)
If the question were asked to a class in which all of us were present, “how many have been guilty of saying ‘I’ll get to that … someday’ … my hand would be among the first to go up.
So what is written in this blog is first being written for my own benefit. If there were a club named ‘Procrastinators Anonymous’ … I could be one of the charter members! You see … so many things to do … overwhelmed by the busyness of life … we say we’ll get to this or that ”someday!”
So … when is “someday?” It’s not a day of the week! It’s not a special day of the month or year but it describes in far too many cases, the lives of those who fully intended to get that ‘something’ done … “someday”!
Unfortunately, as with King Agrippa in his conversation with the Apostle Paul recorded in Acts 26:26-28, where Paul is certain that the King understood and even believed what he had just heard … today just wasn’t a good day for him to do what he needed to do to please God! Nothing else has been recorded to suggest the day ever came for him to do something about his soul!
James wasn’t condemning the place of planning, looking ahead, or even establishing of goals. But what he was condemning was the exercise of these activities without taking God into account.
One day we will wake up to find there is no more time to do those things we always said we were going to do! The real issue is this: We think we have time … and plenty of it! The future seems to have infinite possibilities … but what if the only future in this life is today only!
We really don’t like to think about life in this way, do we? We would rather just dismiss that kind of thinking and enjoy our time … acting as if we are at the controls of the time machine.
I’ll get to it someday …
- Establish or restore my relationship with the Lord.
- Start taking better care of myself.
- Spend more time with my family.
- Stop at the museum we pass all of the time.
- Talk with someone about their soul
- Fill in the blank _______________________
My friends … things happen in our lives over which we have no control. Other things happen where we can at least do our part! If there is a broken relationship … try to mend it or at the very least be open to forgiving!
If we are harboring anger, bitterness, jealousy or any other of those things falling into the category of the “works of the flesh” … we need to take care of our responsibility today with the knowledge that if we keep waiting for that “someday” to come tomorrow … it just might be too late!
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17, NKJV)
Bill Fairchild, Jr.
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