I am a planner – I thrive on making plans and love setting short-term and long-term goals. I always map out plans for tomorrow the night before. It usually looks something like this:
Tomorrow, I will do my morning devotions, have breakfast, go to church for office hours, and then go to my lunch meeting with another pastor at noon. Afterward, I will return to church to work on my sermon. Then, I will come back home around 4 p.m. to go to the gym with Emily – it’s leg day. Afterward, we will have dinner, call our parents, watch television, and sleep.
I also create a weekly “To Do List,” which is always written on my phone. This type of planning can carry on into monthly, yearly, and even lifelong plans. We make plans about our careers, education, health, retirement, finances, and so on. The truth is that we all have a natural tendency to plan. Some say that planning is an essential trait that helps us navigate through the complex and uncertain world. We feel that we gain a sense of control, structure, and assurance as we map out our goals.
However, it becomes interesting when our tendencies to plan meet reality – the reality of God – that God is the author of our lives and that He alone decides our appointed times and boundaries on earth. Sure, we may plan, but the Scriptures testify that the Lord directs our steps. As believers, we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and the Lord of all life. We confess with our words that we trust in him, but when it comes down to day-to-day living and planning, we may fall short of what we say and plan without acknowledging the Lord. We often make significant life decisions like marriage, careers, children, homes, and finances without considering God’s plans for our lives.
In our text today, James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ, addresses this reality. James wants us to think about the plans we make in life and ask, “Are we acknowledging God in all of this? Does God’s plan come first, or does mine come first?” Ultimately, James wants us to realize that a person whose faith has integrity knows that God is the one who holds our future. Therefore, recognizing that God is sovereign over our plans, we must live lives that reflect that reality.
James says in verse 13, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’” James calls on the people who thrive on making plans. He is alluding to the itinerant mercantile – the traveling salesman of his day who would trade from city to city, carrying their goods on camels or donkeys. Due to their profession, they had to be good planners. The merchants had to plan. The merchants needed to negotiate well to buy certain goods for a low price, take them to a location where they could be sold for a high price, make travel arrangements, and return home safely with a profit.
This man that James describes had a good plan. If you look at verse 13 carefully, you can see that the person James describes is competent and motivated to make a profit. He has picked out an item he wants to sell and bought it at a reasonable price. He did his research and picked a town where he knew there was a high demand for his product. He has also calculated the time he will need to spend there. This was not a weekend adventure. He planned to spend a year of his life on this venture, which reveals a degree of dedication.
I suppose we could visualize what is happening here with the following example:
One day, this man says to his business partner in Jericho, “Hey, did you know that in Tyre and Sidon, there is a high demand for Israel’s olive oil and dates? Apparently, the ladies use it for skincare, and they can’t get enough of it! It blew up on Instagram!” He continued, “We did so well on our previous business trip to Corinth. We made a great profit there selling some of the choicest dried dates. I guarantee we will make much more money in Tyre and Sidon.”
He says, “Look, you don’t have to worry. I will plan everything. I will contact the best olive oil and fig producers in the country. I will hire mercenaries to protect us during the journey. I will arrange with the camel distributors. We will go for about a year, and I guarantee this trip will be worth it.”
So, he spent sleepless nights—sacrificing his sleep for weeks after weeks—planning and strategizing, making sure everything was right. He was certain that his plan was perfect. He double-checked everything, dotted all the “I’s,” and crossed all the “T’s.” He knew that he was going to succeed. He often skipped meals because he was so focused on his plans. Then, finally, the night before the trip comes. Restless from the anticipation of the journey that would happen the following morning, he remained at his desk in his office until late at night, and his mind was filled with visions of success and wealth...
However, as the night went on, a growing tightness in his chest began to trouble him. He ignored it at first, thinking that he was just anxious. But his discomfort took a turn for the worse when a sudden, intense pain began to squeeze his chest. His heart began to pound like a drum, and cold sweat covered his brows, but no one was there to help.
It was fatal - death by overwork.
What happened? Surely, he was on the road to success. Surely, this man thought of everything. However, in his incessant planning, he began to lose awareness of his fragility. He became so sure of his plans that he lost touch with the uncertainties of tomorrow. In fact, he was living his life as if he could control it.
Yet there he was, lying cold and stiff on the floor, and his grand plans vanished like a breath of wind.
James says in verse 14, “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” No one has a guarantee of tomorrow, and our lives are frail. Think of our situations – we have no control over our lives, and the plans we make cannot be taken for granted. We’ve watched our work, health, retirement, marriage, and even our life plans vanish like a breath of wind. Think back to COVID-19 and what that did to us – how many of our plans were ruined. There was a point where we couldn’t even get toilet paper!
Our lives are connected by uncertainties – they’re there and then gone. When you grab your cup of coffee or tea in the morning, steam furiously rises from the cup, only to disappear. When you walk outside on a cold morning, you see your breath rhythmically appear with each exhale and disappear immediately. That is the frailty of our lives.
But here is the thing. Someone might ask, “Dasol, I get that our lives are short and frail. I see that our plans do not matter in light of the uncertainty of our lives. Then, should we not plan at all?” What James is saying here could lead us to think that James is against all types of planning. However, that is not true. James does not want us to say, “Let go and let God” or “Jesus take the wheel.” James is nothing that we should never plan. Planning for the future is wise; we should always plan.
The problem begins when we begin to think we have control of our plans and ignore God. The problem is planning without acknowledging God, not referring to God’s will and commands, boasting about your plans for your future, and planning and assuming that God will bless it no matter what. James calls this “Boasting in your arrogance,” and all such boasting is evil. This type of planning does not occur out of reverence for God and the need to depend on Him for life and direction. It is never that planning in and of itself is wrong. It is about answering this question: “When we plan, do we have an abundance of faith in ourselves or faith in God?
This should not be so. Planning and announcing what we will do tomorrow or next year is foolish without referring to God’s will.
Then, what is the right thing to do? What should the man in verse 13 should have done? What are we supposed to do with our plans and decisions? What is the right and godly way to handle our plans?
The answer is to plan with the Lord. We must prioritize God first in our planning. James says in verse 15, “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” James does not tell us not to plan but to place God first and acknowledge God’s will first. It is about admitting that God’s plans supersede our plans and aligning our lives with God’s direction – we must set our priorities straight.
If it is the Lord’s will, we will do this or that. If it is the Lord’s will, we will be able to carry out whatever plans we make. If it is the Lord’s will, He will answer our prayers. This is the attitude God wants from us – to lay down our innate desire for control to the one who created us and knows us best.
The Puritans, back in the day, frequently used “God willing” in their speeches and letters with its Latin equivalent – Deo Volente. God willing, we will do this. Deo Volente should be engraved in our hearts and recalled each time we navigate through the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly plans we create.
We must be able to say:
I will start my own business – Lord willing
I will spend my time doing this tomorrow – Lord willing
I will travel to Europe next summer – Lord willing
I will retire at 62 – Lord willing
I will buy a new truck – Wife willing (Lord willing)
Deo Volente is the attitude James encourages us to have.
As James concludes this section, he says in verse 17, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” We boast in our arrogance when we believe we have the power to carry out our plans and dictate the terms of our lives. I love the urgency and immediacy of James’ words. For James, whoever knows the right thing to do and does not do it is a sin.
To sin is to “miss the target,” where an archer would miss the intended target or goal. When we boast in our arrogance, we miss the target of God’s grand purposes and plan for our lives and fall short. When we realize we are missing the target, we must make an immediate and willful decision to reorient our course to God’s desires. James calls those boasting in their arrogance to reorient their life’s priorities to say “Deo Volente” in their everyday decisions. After all, we do not know whether tomorrow will come or not. We do not have a guarantee that we will have the future to set our priorities. The time is now, today, to live according to God’s will.
Deo Volente should be the standard and honorable way of life for believers. We want to plan and move forward in our lives with God at the center of it. So, won’t you make your plans with the Lord? Won’t you say Deo Volente in your lives? Make your plans with the Lord, and Lord willing, He will bless, guide, and be with you in your plans.
