07.31.08

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.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. - James 4:13-17 NKJV.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. - James 1:5 NKJV.

Last week a woman who lives in Levy County, Florida saw some kind of animal in her yard, and she went outside to check it out. The animal turned out to be a fox, and it attacked her. The fox bit her on the leg but wouldn’t turn loose, and so she told her husband to go get their rifle. The husband did manage to kill the fox after firing seven rounds from the .22 caliber gun, but he also hit his wife once in the lower leg. She apparently is going to be okay.

Early in our marriage, Jeanie and I were both working at a cotton gin that my father-in-law managed. Our car needed a tune up and there was a garage close to the gin that I took it to. Not long afterwards Jeanie and I heard the sirens of fire engines. We all wondered where they were going since this was a small city. It wasn’t long before I found out. The mechanic came from the garage that I had taken our car to. He said that the fire had been…my car! All the wiring and everything except the block under the hood had been destroyed.

We contacted our insurance agent, and he tried to go to the garage to check out the damage. But he couldn’t check out the damage, because the garage was locked up. The mechanic had left and went to California for a week with our damaged car locked up in his garage. We did finally gain access to the car and after another week our car was finally repaired. Sometimes the cost of a tune up is higher than you might think.

Life seems to always have the potential to throw us a curve ball when we least expect it. We think we know what tomorrow will bring, but we really have no control. We think we will have good health for many years to come, but we know that tomorrow all that could change. We think that we have many years to live our lives for the Lord, but the end of our life could be today. We think that we have plenty of time to reach that neighbor, friend, or relative with the good news of Jesus. But the truth is we may never have another opportunity.

The truth is that life has twists and turns that none of us can predict or foresee. Unexpected things occur in the life of every person on a frequent basis. Some of those occurrences are big, some are little, and some are life changing. Things happen! However, God does know what is coming around the corner and He is the only One who really knows. Let us not depend on our fallible human wisdom, knowledge and resources; but instead seek the wisdom, and guidance of the Lord for each step of every day. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him (James 1:5).”