Living on God’s Time

The plane took off, and everything seemed normal. Then, all of a sudden, silence. We seemed to be hang gliding through the air. I had flown enough to know this was not normal. We had been climbing, just after take-off. Then suddenly, the engines were silent.

It is humbling to realize you have absolutely no control over your life. In that moment, to know that every plan you have made could be left unfulfilled, all your savings, your treasures…left behind, that all you will take with you are the deeds you have done so far. And all you will leave behind that has any lasting impact is the lives you have influenced.

James tells us that our life is mist – that we appear for a while and then vanish. Throughout Scripture we are reminded that this earthly life is vanishing. The writer of Ecclesiastes says that we learn more at a funeral than a feast because we will all end up there, and we might learn something from it (Eccl. 7:2). More than once, I have said that there is only one thing in life this is guaranteed, and that is death. 100% of us will die. I don’t always get a really good response from that reminder, but it is an important one.

As the airplane seemed to hang in the air, I knew something was wrong. And I knew that there was nothing I could do to control the outcome. But, in our day to day lives on the ground, we tend to fool ourselves into thinking we are in control of the outcome in our lives.
James says, listen you who say, “I have a plan for the next year, and I’m going to execute against that plan and a year from now, when I get back, I’m going to be set for life. I’ll sit back, relax, and enjoy!” This boasting is evil.

It’s not that planning or working hard are bad. It’s the arrogance and bragging that James speaks out against. James is writing to people who are making plans for their financial security, and God isn’t included in those plans. Their trust is in their own ability to make money, not in God. You ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” says James, “And anyone who knows that good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”

You ought to seek God’s will before your own. You ought to realize that God has a purpose for your life beyond your comfort.

Several years ago, I read a series of novels about a small, Episcopal church in Mitford, North Carolina. The pastor of the church, Father Tim, would visit the sick, or be faced with a conflict, and every time he would pray the prayer that always works. I was just out of seminary, and I was intrigued by a prayer that always works. I knew that there wasn’t a prayer that always resulted in things turning out the way you wanted, but I wondered if there was a prayer that helped people accept whatever happened, that brought assurance and peace. Finally, several books into the series, the words were recorded. “Thy Will be done.”

It is the prayer that always works – aligning our lives with God’s will. What is God’s purpose for your life? The Westminster Catechism says that the chief purpose in humanity is to glorify God and enjoy God forever.

What are your goals in the mist of your life?

Jesus tells a parable about a rich man and his plans. His crops were abundant, and he didn’t have enough storage for it all. So, he tore down the barns he had and built bigger barns to store it all. And he settled down, saying to himself, “You have plenty stored for many years, take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

A similar story was told in Reader’s Digest, “A couple ‘took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells…’ Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: ‘Look, Lord. See my shells.’ (Feb. 1998)

The goal in life isn’t to have enough to sit back and relax. God’s purpose for us isn’t to store up enough in our barns to take our ease; it isn’t to spend the rest of our days in the sun collecting sea shells. The time you have is God’s time. How will you spend it?

What are your lifetime goals? How are you gifted to influence others for good? Obviously, none of us can participate in every opportunity that crosses our paths, but when we have the opportunity to do something that we are called to do, and we don’t do it, it’s a sin. So, how do you know you are called to do something? When you know it is the right thing to do and you have the ability to do it, you are called to do it. Some people describe being called as a tug, something that continually is in their thoughts, others find that it keeps them up at night. When you do what you are called to do, it gives you energy and joy.

In those moments that the engines go silent, you realize that life is mist, that every day is a gift from God to live for God’s glory. The good that you are called to do and have not done hangs in the air as regret. The good you have done surrounds you like a blanket of comfort. And then, the engines roar and the plane continues its climb.

What about you? How will you use God’s time? Will you continue to climb and store and make plans for yourself? Or will you pray the prayer that always works, “Thy Will be done, Lord” and then do it?