James 4:13-17 (NASB) ‘Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.’
This passage has taken on a whole new complexion for me of late. We all know that our time here is very short in comparison to the timeline of history. That is no secret. However, I believe most, I know I did, tend to view this concept rather abstractly. Well, when “your long time from now” starts looking like a not so long time from now, you take a different look at things.
The meat of the matter, the bottom line of this passage is, tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us. It doesn’t matter if you are in the prime of your youth and believe you have decades left, or you’ve just been leveled with a terminal diagnosis, tomorrow will take care of itself. It is your job to focus on what you will accomplish TODAY.
As you go through your day, what’s your focus? Do you go about your day intentionally? Seriously, ask and answer that question for yourself. Do you have a plan on how you will approach your day and the events within? Notice I didn’t say, “do you have a plan for what you will DO throughout your day”. Think about how you do your day. Who do you do it for? To what ends? Do you go about to satisfy others, yourself, for reward or praise… what is your motivation throughout the day? Do you do everything ‘heartily unto the Lord’? I know I don’t. I look for praise, recognition and reward from man 99.9% of the time.
The point I’m driving at is, every single day matters, and TODAY is the most important of days. You may not get another chance to do that eternal something directed by the Lord for the sake of another. If there isn’t a tomorrow for you, what impression did you leave those you influenced TODAY? How did God urge you to serve Him TODAY, and did you? Have a blessed weekend.
In full pursuit of the greatest Trophy,
Scott Pace
