My life has had a lot of changes in the last month or two. I got married, moved out of my parents' house, and started attending a different church (congregation) with my new wife. These changes were either not how I saw my life going or happened sooner than I thought they would, but they were the will of God. That's a little bold to say, isn't it? Whenever someone claims that something is the will of God, it can strike us as kind of hokey, or even arrogant, but I can say with confidence that something that has already happened in my life was just that. In fact, it is arrogant of me to talk about my future with certainty, thinking I control it.
We find evidence of this in James 4:13-16. Verse 13 sets up the situation many (all) of us put ourselves in, making a plan to do something tomorrow, or even today. I am sure I have already done this today, and I'm sure you have as well. In fact, this morning I woke up and said "I'm going to drive my wife to work, then sit at a coffee shop and blog, read, and write some poems. Later we'll go to the beach with her family." So far, this is actually working out for me, but verse 14 reminds us that we cannot have confidence in that because we don't know what the day will bring.
Think on this a bit. How many times have we made plans and knew everything that would happen that day without a doubt? Never. How many times have we made plans that never came to fruition because something outside of our control affected them? This verse is backed not only by our belief that the Bible is infallible, but by common, empirical evidence. Humans do not control everything in the world, and they cannot. My plans are not the be-all and end-all of the universe and I should not hold them as such. Countless events could have happened this morning to keep me from driving my wife to work and writing this blog in a coffee shop that my plans had no control over. For my life is short and insignificant compared to time as a whole; it holds no power over the world.
At this point, if anyone here says "well it is unwise to plan then" should continue reading James 4, for this is not the point nor the end-goal of this passage. The reader will notice that the correct and right way to plan is given in verse 15 and it still very much contains planning, but in humility. It is alright and good to make plans and goals, but with the understanding that God is Lord and is in control. My attitude this morning should not have been one of confidence that I would be able to drive my wife to work and come to a coffee shop, but one of humbly knowing that my plan may not come to be the way I envisioned it because I am not in control.
Here are the implications of this verse and attitude: nothing happens in our lives apart from God's will. There may be some friction between the reader and this statement, so let me try and sand it down, although I don't believe this will ever be an easy pill to swallow. I'll start with a question: why would the correct attitude be to say "if the Lord wills" if he is not 100% in control? Then he would be helpless to affect our plans like us, and we could not leave them up to his will. It would not be correct to say "if the Lord wills" because there are forces beyond his control that might upset not only our plans, but his will. So if he was not sovereign (in control), we could not say "if the Lord wills" but rather "if it just so happens." Here, an objector could say that he does not will everything, but allows some things to happen. Does this language not imply things happen outside his will? But this is not what the divinely inspired James writes. I see no way calling the statement "if the Lord wills" correct leaves room for God to not be sovereign over all or for him to simply allow something to happen outside of his will. If it happens, it is God's will.
This opens a whole new mess of why we suffer or experience pain. Why do we get cancer* or get into horrible car wrecks inside of God's will? To be honest, we will not perfectly understand here on Earth, but many wise people have written about just this if you are seeking a better understanding. What we can know is that God is good (Psalm 100:5), is working everything for our good (Romans 8:28), and is sovereign (Proverbs 19:21). We can also know that making plans with confidence is foolish and arrogant, because we are not in control like God is.
When my bride and I wed, when we signed the lease of our apartment, when I left the congregation I attended for our new one, I could be confident it was God's will for my life. The Bible teaches that nothing could happen outside of his good and perfect will and I can be happy knowing we acted inside of his will, as these decisions were not sin. So as we grow to be more like Christ in our Christian walk, we should ask him to humble us in our plan making. We should strive to not speak of plans as if they were in our control, but rather desires subject to change. God is Lord of all and his will will be enacted in our lives, through or despite our plans.
* This link is to a blog that was written by my late father-in-law during his battle with cancer. I highly recommend reading the whole thing if you are struggling with the question of "why?"
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