He got up and went to work one morning last week but he never came home. While working on the job, as an electrician, he was severely injured and died as a result of the accident. The company he worked for has
offered their condolences to his family and launched an inquiry into workplace safety. His name was not released.
Each morning when we wake up we have no idea of what lies ahead. We have no idea how the day will unfold. Proverbs 27:1 says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” How true. And James says, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.” (James 4:13-14)
Some people interpret those verses to mean that we should take a very casual approach to life. Since anything could happen why plan too much? We should live each day as if it’s our last. But we also find verses that encourage us to think ahead and plan for the future. We aren’t to live recklessly but rather with wisdom and sober thought. That leads some people to the other extreme – everything is over planned and life becomes narrow and rigid.
So how then do we spend our days? I am not sure that I have it all figured out. It seems to me that we need to hope, dream and plan for the future. Then we need to live that out one day at a time. We must hold those plans loosely, knowing that God is sovereign over all and he alone knows how the day will turn out. James says we should plan but also ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (4:15)
It’s humbling at times to admit we don’t control it all but there’s a freedom that comes from committing our days to God. When we do that we are confessing that we are not the masters of our own fate but rather we serve the creator of the universe. We acknowledge that we are his creatures in need of his provision. And because God alone knows all that will happen to us, we can trust him with whatever comes to pass today.