While graveyards may remind one of the brevity of life, the resurrection ensures the brevity of death.

–David E. Garland

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what [will happen] tomorrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

James 4:13-14, NKJV

I was running down the basketball court full speed attempting to retrieve a basketball before it went out of bounds! We were losing in church league basketball and my competitive nature was fired up. I knew I could get to the ball in time and toss it to a teammate, but then the unexpected happened. I slipped on the floor… My head hit the cinder block wall with full force and I was knocked unconscious. I woke up the next day with no recollection of the events that evidently took place after I hit the wall. I had a pretty bad concussion and lost my short-term memory for several hours. When I was told what had happened I was scared. I had never felt so out of control of my life.

At that time my wife and I had been married for less than two years. We had just welcomed a baby girl into the world. The illusion of control was stripped from my hands and I saw just how fragile life really is. For the first time in my life I contemplated my own mortality. It would have been a great time for a life insurance agent to knock on my door, they wouldn’t have had to try and convince me to “prepare for the unexpected” because the unexpected had almost just happened! 

Moments like that have a way of helping you see the brevity of life. No matter how long you live, it’s nothing compared to eternity and while we like to think we have control over things, there is a lot that we can’t control.  I spent several nights after that event filled with anxiety over what “might” happen. 

Finally, somewhere in it all I came to peace with the idea that I wasn’t in control. In this passage, James reminds us that while we may make plans, we have no ability for foresight to accomplish our plans apart from the pleasure of God. Our lives may be required of us at any moment. We weren’t meant to live forever in a world filled with sin. There are all sorts of variables that could change the future, “right under our feet.” But there is Someone in charge of the future and we should submit our plans to Him. 

Having a sense of the brevity of life should help us seek the meaning of our lives. It humbles us enough to seek God’s will and direction for us. As the often quoted lines penned by C.T. Studd go, “Only one life and ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” 

Father, Your word is true and good. We are tempted to think we will always have time or that we will get to some things later, yet we are reminded in your word today that we have no control over later. Let us live today in such a way as we trust in your providence. Let our hearts rest in your grace and goodness. Let us walk in humility, simply trusting you. Give us direction for our lives so that they may be filled with purpose.   In Jesus Name, Amen.