November 16, 2024 - James 4

Wow, what a timely reminder from James on this Saturday when we remember Donna's mom (she passed away, one year ago) and, also, struggle with the sad news about Mrs. Mary being back in the hospital:  “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.’  You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes.  You ought to say instead, ‘If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that’ (4:13-15).  With these words ringing in my head, I recall other texts.  Jesus:  “Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.  But accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).  And, Paul:  “From one man he made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope around for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.  For in him we live and move about and exist” (Acts 17:26-28).  I think all these texts speak for themselves without further comment from me.  In life, what a joy to rest in God!

We cannot measure how You heal

or answer every sufferer’s prayer,

yet we believe your grace responds

where faith and doubt unite to care.

Your hands, though bloodied on the cross,

survive to hold and heal and warn,

to carry all through death to life

and cradle children yet unborn.   -- John L. Bell (1994)