Boasting About Tomorrow

Come now,

James tells us in this passage that we are boastful and a fool. We tend to get caught up in life and we make long term plans. Now don’t get me wrong, I myself, am a visionary looking to the future with plans for tomorrow and yet we see here today that we are not all going to see our plans come to completion. 13 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”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jas 4:13–14). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

A day such as today makes us ask ourselves, What is your life? Usually, coming to the end of a friends life reminds us to reflect upon our own. What mark did we make. I recently went back to my school for a visit and a time to reflect and renew the spirit withing me. As I walked the hallways of the school I noticed pictures on the wall of people I knew and people I did not know. One thing I concluded quickly was although I did know many of the people in the pictures, I was none of them. It made me wonder, had my years here left an impact at all.

James says that men are nothing but a mist like a morning fog that by mid morning lifts and is no more. I believe that those who knew Charles would offer that his life was more than a mist. They would say as they already have that Charles left his mark on this world, and made a difference. Most of our lives we are just living and we don’t even consider what impact we have made, but today is different isn’t it. Today we are considering what we will have said on our great day. Will we have made a difference in this life or did we just go through life one day at a time. As I walked the halls of my seminary I wondered what contribution I had offered. I was in none of the pictures and many of my friends were, yet I refused to believe that my time here was but a mist in time that had soon vanished. You see our lives are full of hustle and bustle. We barely take time to breathe as we stamp the time card of our lives. But today is different. Today you will reflect on what it is that you have done. Will you be remembered as you are remembering Charles today.

I want to close today with words from James 5:7-11, Patience in Suffering, “7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jas 5:7–11). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.