“Where do you see yourself in 3 years?”

I work in a coffee shop. My job title is “new media specialist”. What do I do? To name a few things, I build websites, create graphics and develop multimedia presentations. I really enjoy what I do, I get to work with several different companies and ministries. One of the benefits of working in a coffee shop, besides the quick access to coffee, is that I meet some fascinating people. I also hear some interesting conversations, in particular over the past few weeks a restaurant that is opening up beside the coffee shop has been conducting interviews right here in the coffee shop. I try not to eavesdrop, and most of the time I’m listening to music or sermons, but one question I hear the interviewees being asked every time is:

“Where do you see yourself in 3 years?”

If someone were to ask you that question, how would you reply? “Where do you see yourself in 3 years?” Do you have goals that you hope to obtain 3 years down the road? Pondering that question I was drawn to a few verses found in James 4.

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— ¹⁴ 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.¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

I don’t think planning for the future in itself is sinful, in fact I think it’s wise and there are scriptures(Pr 14:8, Lk 14:28-33, 2 Cor 9:6, etc.) that would reinforce that. The big idea is that we have been created to live in the moment, not in the future. Matthew Henry commenting on this passage wisely says:

We must remember that our times are not in our own hands, but at the disposal of God; we live as long as God appoints, and in the circumstances God appoints, and therefore must be submissive to him, even as to life itself…

Christian, live your life to the glory of God and the good of others every moment He has given you. We see that our time, money, breath and everything else that we think is ours, is not our own. Everything is God’s and if He chooses to take any of those things away, it would be completely fair because they were never ours in the first place.

Psalms 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!