James 4:13-17 Work + Life: Balance: Taming Your Calendar
That Thing on the Wall
I don’t really know how the logarithms work, but I know they have a knack for figuring out what we need and then directing advertisements for that very thing to us. It’s more than a little scary.
And lately, one of the advertisements I’ve been getting a lot on my YouTube and Social Media feeds is for something called a SkyLight Calendar. Is anyone familiar?
I’m not speaking for or against this product. It could be great, it could be useless. I don’t know. But what it looks like is a big Ipad that hangs on the wall and according to the spokesperson syncs the personal devices of everybody in the family so that everyone’s schedule is displayed and Mom and Dad and all the kids always know where they need to be and when they need to be there.
Again, could be a great product. I don’t know. But what it looks like to me is something that I grew up with, and that Beth has had in our house throughout our marriage, and that’s a paper calendar on which we write down Dr. appointments and school concerts and vacations so that everybody in the family knows when there is a special event or something that will interrupt our normal schedule. To me, it looks like a high tech system for a problem that has had a low tech solution for generations.
But, at the same , the existence of these electronic calendars which sync to everyone’s phone speaks to something we have been talking about throughout this sermon series. People are busy. Families are busy. We can be driven by our calendars. There are many demands on our time.
We feel run ragged because our calendars are sending us here, calling us to be there. Whether it is the family trying to manage 4-H meetings with soccer practices and theater rehearsals; the young mom who is trying to juggle a job with household responsibilities and starting a side business; or the retiree who is mixing volunteering with club meetings and trips out of town to see the grandkids; we can all reach a point where are calendars are calling the shots. Where our schedules are running us ragged. (And I mean that whether you keep a detailed calendar or not. I’m not talking about how much you write down on paper or punch in to your phone, but rather, how much many of us are trying to stuff into our days.)
Our sermon series is called Work + Life: Balance. We’ve talking about the fast pace at which many of us are living our lives. We’ve seen that one of God’s great gifts to us is rest. That He invites us to bring our weary and heavy-laden lives to Him and find rest. That He cares about our sleep. That He wants us to have a healthy balance between honoring Him with our Work while also trusting in Him to provide. As we’ve been saying, Christianity is a religion of rest. Where other faiths call you to work, Christianity invites you to rest in the work that Christ has already done.
So it seems that one of things we need to talk about is our calendars. How do we get to the point where our calendars no longer dictate the quality of our days? The answer, ironically, lies in learning that we are not in control of our calendars, but God is. That’s the main point of my message this morning. Ultimately, God is in charge of our calendar. And if we want to get to the point where we feel some freedom from the dictates of our schedule, we need to recognize that fact.
Here’s our passage for this morning, from the book of James. James 4:13-17:
13Now 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." 14Why, 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. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
James is a very practical book of the Bible. James is in the Bible to remind us that “faith without works is dead” (2:26) He’s not opposed to the idea of salvation by grace. He knows that it is what Jesus did at the cross that earns our salvation. But he also knows that a genuine relationship with Jesus is going to change the way you live. So his letter is filled with practical instruction about how to live as a follower of Christ. And here, he’s addressing how we think about our calendars.
And what he says is pretty easily outlined. There are two parts. He says: “This is what you say” and then he says “This is what you ought to say.” So that’s how we’ll look at it. “This is what you say” and “This is what you ought to say.”
SMART Goals
First, This is what you say. James begins by talking about what we tend to do wrong. Verse 13:
13Now 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."
James is talking to the business person. He describes someone with a business plan: we’ve got a product, we’re going to go to a new city, open up a new market, spend about a year there, make some good money. It sounds like a regional manager meeting with his sales team.
And, I’ve got to admit, this sounds pretty good to me. I like to read leadership books and go to leadership seminars. I like to learn about how to be more effective and efficient. And lately, one of the trends in the world of management is something called SMART goals. S.M.A.R.T. You are supposed to set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-bound. And this seems to check all the boxes: Specific: this city. Measurable: we’ll make money. Achievable: carry on business. You assume they know what they are about. Results-focused: make money again. Time-bound: spend a year there. This seems like good planning. It makes a lot of sense. So what’s wrong with it?
This. The beginning of verse 14:
14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.
The problem, James says, is that you can’t know what will happen tomorrow. You can make your plans, set your SMART goals, write things on your calendar; but you don’t know if those things will actually happen.
Now, you might know what is probable. I knew that I was probably going to be standing up here and preaching this morning. In fact, that’s one of those things I don’t even write down in my calendar. I just know, if it is Sunday morning, I’m going to be preaching. The only times I write things down on my calendar for Sunday morning is if it’s going to be different.
James’ point is not so much that I couldn’t expect that to happen, but that I can’t control it. We can expect certain things to happen tomorrow, but we can’t ultimately control tomorrow. And in that sense, we don’t know. Proverbs 27:1, which may very well be the verse James is teaching from, says: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
James goes on:
What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
James says we need to be realistic, we need to see the bigger picture. Ultimately, our lives are little more than the morning mist that hangs above the river before the sun gets strong enough to burn it off. In other words: we are temporary, insubstantial, frail, inconsequential. We are transient. Psalm 102 says that our days vanish like smoke. Psalm 90 says that God turns us back to dust.
So how can we think we know what tomorrow will bring? There’s a juxtaposition taking place here. Compare the things we say--go to the city, make money, return—with the reality of who we are—mist, a little while, vanishing.
See, I don’t think that James is opposed to planning. We should make plans. We should write our appointments in our calendars. Nobody appreciates a person who always forgets to show up to things he’s committed to. James is not opposed to planning.
What he is opposed to is presumption. He’s got a problem with people who think that they can engineer their own lives. He’s got a problem with people who think that the only things that matter in life are the choices we make, and that with a proper amount of strategy and will-power we can chart our own path through life. He’s got a problem with people who have taken God off the throne of their lives and put themselves (and their dayplanner) in His place.
In fact, James says this kind of presumption is evil. Skip verse 15 for a minute and look at verses 16 and 17:
16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
To operate out of the mindset of verse 13—to say “tomorrow I decide if I will do such and such and meet with so and so”—is arrogant. It is boastful and braggadocios. It is evil. The good we ought to do is to depend on God, and to do otherwise is to sin. And Jesus died for our sins. So why would we pile more sins on His shoulders?
Deo Volente
So what should we say? What is James driving at? How do we avoid this sin of presumption? Verse 15:
15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
“If it is the Lord’s will.” We need to learn to acknowledge that in all our plans we are dependent on God and subject to His will. We need to understand that we are not the engineers or our lives, but God is. We need to live in such a way that honors His ultimate control of our calendars.
Let me put it this way: you are not in control of whether or not it rains or shines tomorrow. God is. You are not in control of whether the stock market rises or falls tomorrow. God is. You are not in control of whether other nations will be friendly or hostile towards us tomorrow. God is. You are not in control of whether you live or die tomorrow. God is.
We may be able to contribute in some ways to these things: we can use good business practices or good diplomacy or eat a good diet and get plenty of exercise—but still, we are not ultimately in control.
And, of course, we know that today, on Sunday, sitting in church. We can acknowledge that God is sovereign and in control. But the question is: do we live that way the other six days of the week? Do we make our plans and set our schedules with a mindset that recognizes God’s control?
Here are a couple of initials that I wonder if some of you recognize: D.V. This is before my time, but I’ve read that it used to be common for church bulletins to give a list of upcoming events, and then underneath add the initials D.V. In the early 1900s, it used to be common to sign a letter and then put the initials D.V. underneath. If a Christian businessman wrote down plans and things he hoped to do with his business, he would frequently mark a D.V. right after his plans.
D.V. stands for Deo Volente. It means, “God Willing.” So Christians would not talk about their future plans without adding these initials, as a reminder, that God is in control.
I think the practice has fallen out of favor because it became a superficial way to show off someone’s piety. I don’t think James’ intention was for us to legalistically qualify every discussion of the future with a “God willing.” I think I’d get pretty tired of it if Beth called me to the supper table by saying “We’re going to eat now, God willing” or said, “I’m going to sleep now, God willing.” I don’t think that’s James’s point.
But it is sad that we’ve lost the Deo Volente mindset. We really have become a society that believes we are the masters of our own fate, and that we can engineer everything that happens to us. What we need is to stamp Deo Volente on our hearts. To recognize that, as the Psalmist says, our times are in His hands (Psalm 31:15).
Larry Burkett, the late Christian financial planner, used to say: “Write your plans in pencil, and give God the eraser.” I think that’s a pretty good picture of what it means to live Deo Volente, and a pretty good summary of what James is saying in this passage. There’s nothing wrong with planning, but don’t presume. Always remember that God is ultimately in charge of our calendars.
So, with that perspective in mind, what can we say about taming our calendars? How can we use the Deo Volente mindset to get to the place where our schedules are no longer dictating our days? I have two pieces of advice. I’d like to encourage you to be firm, and be flexible.
Know Your Purpose
First, be firm. What I mean here is that you have to set some priorities and stick to them. Know what are the most important things in your life, and make sure you have room for them.
There’s a story in Acts, after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, of the Apostles John and Peter healing a crippled man outside the temple in Jerusalem. It’s a remarkable miracle: the man begs for some loose change and Peter says: “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (Acts 3:6) And the man gets up and walks, and a whole bunch of people become Christ-followers because of it.
But what I want to point out today is something Beth mentioned once. Here’s the description of this man before his healing:
2Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.
What’s interesting about this is that this man was begging at a busy gate to the temple, and that he did so every day, and that he had been doing so for a long time. We also know that while He was on Earth, Jesus visited the temple frequently. So it is likely that Jesus walked by this man, probably often, and yet Jesus did not heal him.
Now, there might be a lot of reasons for this: maybe Jesus knew that Peter and John would eventually do this miracle, maybe it wasn’t time for this man to be healed; but it also tells us that Jesus didn’t do everything. He didn’t take every opportunity to heal. In other words, Jesus had priorities.
There’s another story, in the gospel of Mark, from early in Jesus’ ministry. He’s in Capernaum, where He healed many people, including Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. Then He withdraws to a quiet place to pray. Meanwhile, all the people are excited about the miracles, and they’re looking for Him. The disciples come to Him, very excited, because they see the opportunity to really build a crowd. And Jesus says to them:
38”Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” (Mark 1:38)
Jesus knew what He was about. He knew what was most important to Him. And so, He did not respond to every request for healing. He did not take every speaking engagement. He didn’t allow others to set His calendar for Him. Jesus had priorities. And He was firm about sticking to them.
John Maxwell talks about something he calls the 20/80 principle. He says that if you focus on the 20% of your tasks that are most important, you’ll accomplish 80% of what you need to get done. In other words, if your “to do” list for the day has 10 tasks, if you can just figure out which 2 are most important and spend your time on them, you’ll cover 80% of what needs to be accomplished that day.
And I think the idea applies whether you are talking about your work or your family or your school: what are your priorities? What are the things most important to you? Make sure there is time for those things on your calendar and then don’t be distracted from them.
The fact is: we can’t do everything. We are not God. Jesus was God, and even He did not do everything. So whether you are talking about extra-curricular activities for your kids or extra responsibilities at work or even participating in programs at church, recognize that you can’t do it all. And that’s O.K. Figure out what should be a priority, and then let some other things go.
In fact, since I brought it up, I should talk for a few moments about the church. Because the truth is, when it comes to stuffing schedules, churches can be one of the worst offenders. We have lots of programs and causes, activities and opportunities, and we have a tendency to make it sound like you aren’t a very good Christian if you don’t get involved in each and every one of them.
Kevin DeYoung, in his book Crazy Busy, calls this the “terror of total obligation.” Sometimes we can be made to feel like we have to do something about everything that the Bible talks about. But DeYoung helpfully points out that caring is not the same as doing. While the Bible calls us to care about widows and orphans, it doesn’t mean that we all have to take widows and orphans into our homes. While we should all care about the terrible floods in Nepal, we are not all called to do something about it. We can pray. And we should. We can cheer on those who are called to do something about these things. But we won’t all get involved in every issue in the same way.
Which leads to another important point: thank God we are a part of the church, and God gives people within His church different passions and gifts. So, while I may not feel called to go on a mission trip, thank God there are people who are. The beautiful thing is when all the different parts of the body carry out their individual callings and gifts so that the whole unit can be effective and healthy. If we all do our part, God will provide all we need to do what He is calling us to do.
So, if we want to be effective, if we want to serve our families and our church and our community well, we must set priorities. And then we must be firm in keeping to them.
Be Open
But, to balance that, and to really bring in the Deo Volente perspective, we must also be flexible. If we are really going to let God keep the times of our lives, then we must be responsive to the opportunities He brings our way.
Let’s consider, again, the example of Jesus. In Mark 5 Jesus is on the way to the house of a man named Jairus. It’s a very purposeful journey. The man’s daughter is dying, and he desperately wants Jesus to come lay hands upon her. But as they stride down the street the crowds are pressing in and clamoring for Jesus’ attention. You can imagine the anxiety of Jairus, as he just wishes everybody would get out of the way so the healer can attend to his precious daughter.
But then, suddenly, Jesus stops and says: “Who touched my clothes?” It’s an outrageous question. It would be like Caitlin Clark stopping in the midst of signing autographs to ask who touched her. Everybody is trying to touch her.
But Jesus knows, and He stops to address a woman who had been issuing blood for 12 consecutive years. She touched His cloak in faith, and now she’s healed, and Jesus wants to take the time to bless her. It wasn’t on His schedule, it wasn’t part of His plan for the day, but Jesus was willing to give this woman what she needed. And, oh yeah, even though He got there too late to heal the little girl, He had no problem at all raising her back to life.
Or, one more example, just a chapter later. When Jesus finds out that His cousin John the Baptist has died, He wants nothing more than to retreat and get away. He’s tired and run down and grieving, He just wants a solitary place. But the crowds won’t give it to Him. They chase Him around the lake and are waiting for Him when His boat lands. It’s not on the calendar. It’s not necessarily what He wants to do. But here’s what Jesus does:
34When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Jesus made His plans in pencil, and then He gave the eraser to God. At times He was willing to embrace the interruption, and make time for the unscheduled.
And we should too. Sometimes the interruptions are the point. Sometimes the most important conversations, the best family memories, come from something completely spontaneous.
Some things are truly up to us, and cannot be left for someone else to do something. Sometimes God puts problems in our path precisely because He wants us to be the solution. Sometimes God sets our priorities for us.
So, I can’t tame your calendar for you. How this plays out for each of us will look differently from everyone else. But let me encourage you to live Deo Volente—God willing. Remind yourself, again and again, that God is the engineer of your life. Maybe even say it out loud once in awhile.
Figure out what your priorities are, make sure you have room in your life for them. And then live your life open to the opportunities God is bringing your way.
