Here’s a reality check. If we get to thinking that we are important, that we are significant, that the world revolves around us and our wonderfulness and our works…guess what? As highly as we would like to think of ourselves, James 4 tells us we are simply a mist that appears on earth for a little while before we vanish! Wow! I guess we aren’t so important after all! It sounds like we are fleeting and delicate and not under our own control. So, perhaps we shouldn’t spend so much time concentrating on making money and having fun. Perhaps my agenda isn’t what’s important in life. Perhaps we should rather spend our time focusing on what the Lord would have us do with our lives. Perhaps we should look at our time here as very limited with an unknown departure time.
I have always found misty mornings and evenings rather fascinating. Things seem to disappear into the mist. Things seem to appear in the mist. We can’t see very far ahead in a mist. We don’t know what is coming. With the limited vision of what’s ahead in a mist, we look at our journey differently. We feel a bit vulnerable. We feel like perhaps we should pay closer attention and evaluate our next steps better. Just to be sure. Just to be safe. We don’t want to get ourselves in any kind of danger. We sometimes forget that we don’t have forever. We won’t always be here. We don’t know how long we will have to accomplish the things we want to do. We don’t know if it is the Lord’s will that we do those things we want to do. We don’t know how long we will have to accomplish what God wants us to do. Do you have your priorities straight? Do you want to make your short time here worthwhile? Do you concede this is all dependent on the Lord’s will?
Typically when we experience those misty times, those misty mornings and evenings, they don’t last very long. When the book of James tells us we are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes, God is giving us a reality check. Life is fleeting and uncertain. How do you plan to make the most of your misty time on earth?
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.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
James 4:13-15
Very interesting Sue never thought of it using the word misty as a description. Mine is always like in a blink of an eye will be here on earth and then will be in heaven. I like this description though. It’s a softer calmer feeling, but we are only here for a short time. So we do need to do the Lords work.
Yes, our time here does pass quickly, Jackie. We have had a couple of foggy, misty mornings the past few weeks. Each time I see that, I am reminded of this bible verse. Have a blessed day!