#LockdownLife
“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” James 4:13-17
Is there a better Bible verse for our time?
It reminds us profoundly and clearly that God has got this. He has got us and he has got our times and he has got this Lockdown. We cannot know why we are here or how long it will last but we can know that the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever. At this time it is not the Lord’s will that we can go here or there or anywhere! But despite the chaos, he is still the Lord.
And yet, I also want to say, these are great verses for all the time!
James here reminds us to live realistically; that is, to realise that life is fleeting, brief, uncertain, and frail. Illness, accident, or the return of Christ could cut short our lives just as quickly as the morning sun dissipates the mist. In the end, death is the great leveller. But, James’ point is not ‘fear death’. He actually wants us to embrace life rightly.
We have to acknowledge that God not only exists, but that he is the owner of life itself. That he has a plan and that our plans ought to be in accordance with his. Our lives ought to be shaped by and lived in reference to God’s sovereignty and our mistiness.
So is that what shapes your life?
I think you can diagnose your approach to life by looking at how you make decisions. Do you ask what is best for me? Or do you ask, how can I best serve God? Do you plan your day, your week, and your next year as though you were Lord of earth and time and there was no God in heaven. Or do you plan in light of the God of earth and time?
Now we might note equally that saying or praying “God willing” is not some sort of purifying statement that makes things we do right. It is not a protective talisman or an immunity idol. To be sure the words “If the Lord wills” can be said with little more than vain hope and superstition; but they can also be the sweetest and most comfortable reassurance to a humble and trustful spirit.
What James urges us to do is to order our lives from God outwards. He is urging us to recognise that God has given us our life to be used in service of him even in the midst of a pandemic. And when you live life in that way, peace, calm and hope will set in, even in the face of uncertainty and fear.
