New Testament 199-200

Luke 12:13-21

A very similar sentiment (against boasting or too-confident anticipation of tomorrow) is expressed at James 4:13-16:

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.” 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. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.  (New International Version)

This is, if you’ll pardon my pointing it out, a very Islamic sentiment.  One of the most commonly heard phrases in the Arabic or Islamic world is إن شاء الله (in sha‘a Allah; “If God wills”).  It’s said whenever a promise or a commitment is made, or a hope expressed.  And Muslims mean it.  To not say it is to come across as arrogant, as, in a sense, rejecting the sovereignty and providence of God.  

“When does God laugh?  When humans make plans.”

“Man proposes; God disposes.”

We shouldn’t make the error of falling into a fatalistic passivity, but there is much wisdom in such statements.  We have a great deal of control, but not ultimately.  In the end, time and chance happen to us all.  We are not the masters of our fates.  We are not the captains of our souls.

Posted from Moab, Utah