13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.” 14 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.

15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.

REFLECTIONS

Written by George Mihas

I work on the wharfs at Port Botany. Being on a rotating roster, we have blocks of rostered days off. So we always ask each other, “What are you doing on your 5 days off?” One will say, “I’m going to my holiday house down south – there is going to be lots of drinking.” By the way, that is a very common boast at my work – “I had 5 beers last night,” or “I drank so much on that particular day.” Their attitude is, “You only live once, so make the most of it.”

Since I started at my job 16 years ago so many of the people I work with have died – some suddenly, some slowly. Yet everyone plods along, not fearing death that is at the door. Some of the guys who retire are quite wealthy. After 40 years of shift work, they are now ready to relax and enjoy themselves – but suddenly they get cancer and die. It happened last year to a guy from my gang. My own father worked hard and retired, then got sick straight away. He lived the worst year of his life and died while we pleaded with him to repent and receive the Lord.

“Who are you” – says the Lord – “who plan to do this or that?” The Lord warns us that our life is a mist – not only in this passage, but the same warning appears in other parts of the Scripture (see Job 7:7; Psalm 39:5; 102:3). If we don’t recognise that our life and our future plans are in the Lord’s hands, it is the height of arrogance against God.

My company has just mentioned that “automation” is coming. A lot of the guys who are ready to go and start living are rubbing their hands together and planning what they will do with the money. They are not saying, “If the Lord wills, I will do this or that.” There is no talk of God on their lips. It’s so sad to work with 600 people and there are only 3 or 4 people who mention God at all. The majority are blinded – and it’s so easy to “go with the flow” and become desensitised to our environment.

But for us who know Christ and who know the right thing to do, let us ask him to help us learn to be humble in the way we talk about what we plan to do. And let us pray for opportunity to witness to our friends, so that they might humble themselves before the Lord.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

George is a member of our Bossley Park Morning congregation.