…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. (James 4:14, ESV)
For most of the country, temperatures have begun to drop, and those cooler temperatures are more than welcome. Golf in the summer is glorious, but can certainly be interrupted by high heat and humidity.
As the “brrr” months arrive, they bring us golfing weather that welcomes vests, pullovers, and sweatless rounds (Ladies, you don’t sweat, you glisten!).
One of the best canvases for detecting this change is the mist that rises from the green grass. Can you see it? You’re on the first tee. Dew covers the fairway and rough, with the sun rising over the trees to the left of the fairway.
The air has a little nip to it, but the ground still retains some heat. This combination produces that beautiful vapor that hovers over the landscape. This mist, coupled with the beams of the sun, causes the hole to majestically glow. What a stunning sight.
Your tee shot cuts through the haze, finding the first fairway. As you exhale with a sigh of relief, you see your visible breath. A more scientific term for this is called a condensation aerosol cloud. And as we know, as quickly as the cloud appeared, it quickly evaporates and is gone.
In today’s scriptural context, James addresses and condemns those whose sinful business practices have led to profits but have dishonored God. Their gains led them to great confidence in themselves and wealth. He tells them their wealth is temporary (see 4.13), and then v.14 says:
“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.”
What seems to be steady and certain, like an accumulation of great wealth, can be gone in an instant. They fail to recognize and acknowledge God’s sovereignty over all things, like wealth and, most certainly, life.
James shows us that life is a mist, a vapor. As quickly as it begins, it ends. Even a well-lived 95-year-old on their deathbed would utter, “Life is short.” We are here for just a few short years.
Shouldn’t life then be lived, aware of its brief nature, for a purpose greater than just accumulating wealth? Shouldn’t we focus on something that will outlast us? That will influence hearts forever and not just our possessions?
In his book Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper urges his readers to live with a single passion of joyfully displaying the majesty and supremacy of God. With whatever years we have been given, we must be resolved to bring glory to God.
Piper says, “Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain.”
Dear friend, dedicate and commit your entire existence to knowing Jesus and making Him known. Yes, life is short, but what awaits those who are in Christ is eternal. Let’s take as many with us as we can! The reward awaits – eternity in the presence of the loving and holy God.
Prayer: Father, with the days you have remaining for me, may I live for your glory, seeking to bring as many as I can with me into eternity with you, through your Son Jesus. Amen