The Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise
(ESV) 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.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
I am a planner. As a preacher, I planned each service carefully. During both the Lenten and Advent seasons, I followed the Revised Common Lectionary to choose the Scripture and I selected songs that would enhance the service from the UMC Hymnal. The rest of the year I often planned series such as “The Lesser Heroes of the Bible,” and “Living the Beatitudes.” It often seemed my sermons almost wrote themselves and I truly enjoyed this aspect of my ministry.
As much as I like to plan, I fully understand James’ words of caution warning us that such planning can be considered arrogant. Growing up in the South and in church I was aware that many people understood that there were things beyond their control. Whether they were aware of this scripture I do not know, but it was not uncommon to hear the phrase, “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise,” when making plans. I have used this idiom more than once myself, being keenly aware of both its origin and of the cautionary words from James.
James goes on to say it is sin when we know the right thing to do, yet fail to do it. That is a simple enough explanation of sin. Another brief explanation is missing the mark. But I think of sin as, very simply, anything that separates me from God.
We are assured in Romans 8:35 that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Yet we must know instinctively that when we live in sin, our relationship with the One, True and Living God is severed.
May we be so attuned to Jesus, that we recognize if our plans do not align with His, then all we do is in vain. And as I reminded my congregations at the end of each service, “Take the name of Jesus with you, and share Him with all you meet.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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