If Tomorrow Never Comes

³ 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 NIV 

This journey that I have been on officially had its start a little over three years ago. If someone would have told me then, that today I would be living at the coast in a small cottage in a town of seven hundred and fifty people and that I was the pastor of a church with a community of fifty to sixty attendees,  I would not have necessarily  believed them.  This current situation of ours was certainly not one that I had envisioned.

 But, it hasn’t completely been a surprise. Because part of this “grand experiment” all along was to place my trust in God and let Him lead and provide.  And He definitely has done that.  My fourfold goal from the beginning was to get away from working off-price retail for awhile; to spend more time with my wife and little son; to maybe pursue some sort of business; and to trust God for needs and not ask of anyone but Him.

And I would have sot say that for the most part, these past three years those goals have been accomplished.  Sometimes quite different than I imagined, but that is kind of the point.  And so begins my three year update.

We have just signed a renewal lease for this cottage that we are renting.  So, it appears that for the next year, we will be staying here at the coast and pastoring this church.  We were hoping to find a place a little bit bigger and a little bit cheaper, since that did not occur, as opportunity after opportunity fell through, it became clear that the Lord desired us to stay put.

I have learned and am still learning that the plans that I make, the things that I desire, the dreams that I dream will either coincide with the will of the Lord or He overrides them to accomplish that which He wants.  And I am good with that.

That is the point of the verse in James printed above.  The point was that we should not make plans, but rather pencil them in until the Lord writes them in ink.  We must live moment by moment knowing that He might have something for us to do. 

And since the lease has been signed for another year, I can assume that here is where we are. At least for one more year.  So, here I am, send me.