James wrote in his letter a rebuke against those who thought of their lives as “in their hands.” And while we are certainly men with free will, it is not true that we are entirely in control of our lives. In fact it is because all men have free will that we are not in control of when we die. I might want to live to be 100 but a mugger may have other plans. We should heed James’ words and be careful never to forget that our time in life is finite:

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

James 4:13-16

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Sometimes we reach the point in our lives when people attach the phrase “ripe old age of” before they announce how many years we’ve been alive. Sometimes we die young. Sometimes we see it coming due to illness and sometimes we wake up with plans for the day and are dead before noon. That’s just the way it goes. The road of our life just goes on and on, until it doesn’t.

James calls our lives a “vapor” and he’s right: No matter how long we live, our years will always be a drop in the bucket compared to the eternality of God. Instead of presumptuously boasting that we have x-number of years to do x-number of things, we should live as though today is our last day. We should live as though this hour were our final one to breath oxygen. With that as our focus, our lives would suddenly take on a greater sense of urgency.

James advice is to keep the will of God (Who has been and ever shall be) as the guiding light of our lives. That way, no matter when this physical life is over, it will be over having followed a spiritual compass. Death then, ceases to be an “end” we don’t like to think of so we pretend is “still a great ways off.” Death becomes a transition from this life to another, eternal life in Heaven.

And when that truly becomes our focus, then we can sing “the road goes ever on and on…and on…”

 

Have a great day!