URC Daily Devotion 6 November 2024

Reflection
Ever since I can remember I have been aware that any arrangements I make about tomorrow, next week, next month (or even later today) must, in one sense, be tentative. Though I suspect, if I am honest, my expectations often have more to do with human failings than my acknowledgement of God’s wishes.

As I was growing up the work ethic was strong in my family and included an acknowledgement that time was a precious gift not to be squandered. The answer to how best to honour that gift needs us to do some good planning so that the time available is utilised as productively as possible. Such planning requires an element of having some confidence in the future.

But of course, this passage from The Letter of James is about far more than how we plan and manage our time. It addresses our tendency to arrogance, a false confidence in our own abilities and our attitude to all that we have and all that we own.

We can imagine that these verses could be the result of a conversation between James and one of the many travelling merchants or tradespeople of the day. In which the traveller was boasting about his expectations for the coming months. Where would be a profitable place to settle for a while? whom he could influence? and who might introduce him to ‘useful’ contacts? If he was a successful businessman his enthusiasm would be likely to take over in his day to day decision making. Any recognition of God’s place in his life would fall way down the order of priorities.

And our response? Perhaps these words ‘let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace’ from the hymn, Dear Lord and Father of mankind – best express the lives we should be aspiring to.

Prayer
Drop thy still dews of quietness,
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.
 
Breathe through the heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm!
 
J.G.Whittier (1807-1892)