Chinese New Year 2019
Numbers 6:22-27 | Psalm 90:2-6, 12-14, 16 | James 4:13-15 | Matthew 6:31-14
Here is the answer for those of you who talk like this;
James 4:13-15
“Today or tomorrow, we are off to this or that town;
we are going to spend a year there, trading or make some money”.
You never know what will happen tomorrow;
you are no more than a mist that is here for a little while, and then disappears.
The most you should ever say is:
“If it is the Lord’s will, we shall still be alive to do this or that”.
Today’s second reading is worth quoting in its entirety, because it presents both a disturbingly accurate microcosm of our daily concerns, and the appropriate way to set those concerns in their proper context.
After five decades on this earth, I’ve noticed a pattern: In everything I do, I succeed or fail according to the will of God. It matters not whether I prayed about it beforehand; an unknowing rush down His Holy Path succeeds about as much as as a considered series of actions, and a carefully-plotted scheme plods to the same sticky end as a pickpocket running headlong into police, just a lot slower.
In hindsight, I sometimes wonder how on earth I managed to get a certain task done, rushing in like a blind fool, knowing nothing about what lay before me ahead of time. I realize only after much pondering that both the journey and the end result are what God wanted me to experience, out of all the other possible paths that I might have careened recklessly down, and the awful crashes against hard reality I might have suffered.
Of course, an unconsidered journey is never smooth, and I could probably have saved myself a boatload of physical and spiritual aches and pains with some careful forethought, but either way, His will would’ve been done…whether or not I’d explicitly intended it.
The mountain remains in my path; I can choose to trust that the Lord will show me how to climb it like a proper mountaineer…or I can choose my own route, with its bumps, scrapes and heart-stopping falls. One way, I get to reach the summit with enough energy to appreciate the journey; the other, I curse and swear and crawl breathlessly up to the top, only to behold a pair of sandaled feet and a voice gently chiding, “What took you so long?”
So, brothers and sisters, let’s take advantage of this convenient milestone in our lives, a day when everyone traditionally blesses each other with good fortune. Let us instead resolve to spend time pondering God’s will for us, that we may consciously align ourselves in His direction, placing all our hope and trust in Him, and thereby enjoy a relatively smooth journey to our final rendezvous.
For as I’d like to think: All who hope in the Lord…huat (gain great fortune) in the Lord!
