Tuesday, November 27, 2007

tomorrow

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

i started thinking about this last night, and how often this idea is repeated throughout the bible. the main idea is that i am not in control; i can't truly plan ahead, because my plans are always apt to change. for example, my dad didn't plan on being forced into unemployment; my mom didn't plan on having to spend hours every week caring for her handicapped sister. but business downfalls and physical ailments are out of our control, and even though they often aren't expected, they need to be dealt with.

the more i think about it, very little of my life has actually been planned out by me. i've never been one to think ahead or have a set idea about my life and what it will look like. even my plans for college are held loosely; "well, at this point i'm going for a bachelor's degree in communication studies, but we'll see what God has in store." i don't know what might happen tomorrow. and i try not to worry about it. "do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. sufficient for the day is its own trouble" (matthew 6:34).

what this verse doesn't mean is that you should never make plans or think about the future. what it does mean is that you shouldn't worry about things that aren't even an issue right now. sometimes i worry about finances, about how i'm ever going to manage living outside of my parents' financial umbrella, how i'm ever going to afford a house, how i'm ever going to make the money i need to be "on my own," etc. but the truth is, i am still under my parents' financial umbrella. the thought of moving out is still relatively far off for me at this point in time. so i shouldn't worry about it. that doesn't mean that i should forget about it until the day i start packing; i'm currently working to save money and spend what i do have wisely. there is an element of planning, but not to a point where i stress out about obstacles i have yet to encounter.

this whole idea of not planning also doesn't mean you can't believe things will or could happen. i believe that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. i believe that i'll get married someday. i believe in a lot of future things, some of them specific. but i have to know that God might have something different in store. if the sun doesn't rise tomorrow, i can't curse God for it. "God, i believed that You would cause the sun to rise this morning, and now it hasn't. You have failed me!" what is that? it's not like God owes me anything. He doesn't exist to fulfill all our wishes. we exist to bring Him glory! and that means dealing with our circumstances with grace, hope, and love, even if they're not what we necessarily planned.

also, if God's plans end up not being what i believed they would be, that doesn't necessarily mean it was wrong for me to have hope in those things. is it wrong for me to believe that the sun is going to rise tomorrow? or that i'll get to spend Christmas with my family this year? no. and if for some reason those things don't happen, it doesn't necessarly mean it was wrong of me to believe in them. but i can't be so set in those things that i get angry when God decides to do something different. i have to be open to His plans.

james 4:13-15 says this well: "come now, you who say, 'today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. for what is your life? it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. instead you ought to say, 'if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.'"

so the bottom line of all that extraeneous text is this: i don't know what the future holds for me. God is in control of that, i'm not. i have hope for certain things, some of them relatively specific; but i have to be okay if what i believe will come to pass is ultimately not God's plan. i have to be open to His plans.

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