There is a way that seems right to a person, but in the end, it leads to death. ~Proverbs 16:25
And Jesus told this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then, who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” ~Luke 12:16-21
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 and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. ~James 4:13-17
Do you have a bucket list? You know, it’s the list of things you hope to achieve before you kick the bucket. Kathy and I each have one. For example, one of the items on both of our lists is to visit Israel. That has been on our bucket list since we first got married and an older couple, who had been to Israel, told us to “save our pennies,” because it is worth it. We began saving our pennies back then.
But we’ve dipped into that jar many times, for example to buy groceries when both of us were out of work, or to give the kids lunch money. We’ve also used it to help rounding off in dollars when being involved in collecting funds for this and that, such as postage for Operation Christmas Child. Even though the jar has been depleted many times, we still collect change toward our goal. When I find a quarter on the sidewalk, we’ll say something like, “That’s 25 more cents toward Israel.”
Now that we’re older, we’re actually getting more serious about it. We’ve set aside a savings account specifically labeled, “Israel,” that we are putting our collected change into. After all, we are getting older and if we don’t make some serious accumulation soon, this item on the bucket list may not be realized. It’s in the Lord’s hands and plans for us, perhaps. There’s no real harm in our tentative hope to make it to Israel.
Planning is a good thing. In fact, for some people, like Kathy for example, planning is half the fun. Kathy doesn’t really enjoy surprises because she is a planner by nature. It’s probably a gift. If there is such a thing as a gift for planning I know that I haven’t received it! As an aside, just so you know, I love surprises!!! But I have learned that when I want to bless Kathy, if she is not involved in planning it, she doesn’t enjoy it as much. No surprise birthday parties for her! As you can imagine, this was one area of our marriage that took some working out.
Anyway, it’s pretty common for all of us to make plans for our daily lives. We have desk planners and calendars on our phones to keep track of appointments or schedule them. However, we always do best when we take God’s heart into the equation. The question is, what could a man do, or plan, that may seem right to him, but lead to death? Jesus’ parable about the rich fool, along with James’ cautions, help us flesh out the meaning of this proverb.
It is not wrong to make plans, but when we forget about our mortality, when we start believing that our plans are a sure thing and put our hope in them, that is when we run into trouble. “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.” That, basically, was the rich fool’s downfall. The way that seemed right to him is, “God has really blessed me! I’m set for life!” He saw his growth of wealth only as a blessing to himself, to horde and care for himself. He forgot about his mortality. He forgot to enquire of the Lord, what He would have him do with what he had gained. “But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then, who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
James keeps us humble in our planning when he admonishes: “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.” We plan things that make sense to us, but we run into trouble when we begin to believe that those plans are invincible, unstoppable, a sure thing.
The truth is, we don’t know. I think of how many plans that have been thwarted just in the past few months because of the Corona Virus. Businesses have failed, homes have been lost, surgeries have been postponed compromising health. Many things have not gone according to plan. So many are devastated by this turn of events. They created plans that made sense to them at the time but aren’t working out as they had hoped. I wonder how many church’s pastors were thinking of planning for future ministry and going to use words like “Having 2020 vision!” for the New Year. But nobody saw Covid coming as it did!
As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” Jesus makes this sin obvious in the rich fool, when he says: “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” He had no thought of doing good, especially for others. He was looking for the easy life with selfish thoughts, instead of asking the Lord how he could use what he had been given to bless others. Even as we take care of the house we live in now and try to make it more to our liking, we keep thinking about who we are preparing it for when we let it go later.
In his Jewish culture, he would have been taught from an early age about God’s heart for the poor and needy. He would have known about it from the Psalms and the teaching of the prophets, even the Proverbs! So, in his case, to hoard and not share would have been seen as evil because he knew what scripture teaches about what God considers “good,” and was not even thinking about doing it.
In the parable, when God comes and says to the man: “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then, who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” It was like having God come to him and say, “I gave you these blessings to share, now, since you won’t, I will get you out of the way and share it with the needy anyway and you will have no control over the blessing I gave you.”
God will have His way. The rich fool wasn’t going to get away with hording God’s blessings. We do well to hold our plans loosely. James advises: “Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the LORD’S Will, we will live and do this or that.” God’s plans are the sure thing. Ours may not be. For example, while Kathy and I hope to go to Israel, it’s pretty obvious that we hold that plan loosely, since we have not been above dipping into the money jar from time to time for something completely other. We try to live in such a way that our hearts are set on fulfilling God’s plans and modifying ours as needed. We know that we don’t know many things that He does. And, especially as we grow older, we are aware of our mortality more than ever.
Prayer: Father thank You for wisdom from on high to guide us on our humble paths. Today, I will plan to live for You. And may any plans I make for later on, always be submitted to Your will and desire that we remember we are blessed to be a blessing. So may all my plans end up blessing others. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Song: Life Song
And Jesus told this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then, who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” ~Luke 12:16-21
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 and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. ~James 4:13-17
Do you have a bucket list? You know, it’s the list of things you hope to achieve before you kick the bucket. Kathy and I each have one. For example, one of the items on both of our lists is to visit Israel. That has been on our bucket list since we first got married and an older couple, who had been to Israel, told us to “save our pennies,” because it is worth it. We began saving our pennies back then.
But we’ve dipped into that jar many times, for example to buy groceries when both of us were out of work, or to give the kids lunch money. We’ve also used it to help rounding off in dollars when being involved in collecting funds for this and that, such as postage for Operation Christmas Child. Even though the jar has been depleted many times, we still collect change toward our goal. When I find a quarter on the sidewalk, we’ll say something like, “That’s 25 more cents toward Israel.”
Now that we’re older, we’re actually getting more serious about it. We’ve set aside a savings account specifically labeled, “Israel,” that we are putting our collected change into. After all, we are getting older and if we don’t make some serious accumulation soon, this item on the bucket list may not be realized. It’s in the Lord’s hands and plans for us, perhaps. There’s no real harm in our tentative hope to make it to Israel.
Planning is a good thing. In fact, for some people, like Kathy for example, planning is half the fun. Kathy doesn’t really enjoy surprises because she is a planner by nature. It’s probably a gift. If there is such a thing as a gift for planning I know that I haven’t received it! As an aside, just so you know, I love surprises!!! But I have learned that when I want to bless Kathy, if she is not involved in planning it, she doesn’t enjoy it as much. No surprise birthday parties for her! As you can imagine, this was one area of our marriage that took some working out.
Anyway, it’s pretty common for all of us to make plans for our daily lives. We have desk planners and calendars on our phones to keep track of appointments or schedule them. However, we always do best when we take God’s heart into the equation. The question is, what could a man do, or plan, that may seem right to him, but lead to death? Jesus’ parable about the rich fool, along with James’ cautions, help us flesh out the meaning of this proverb.
It is not wrong to make plans, but when we forget about our mortality, when we start believing that our plans are a sure thing and put our hope in them, that is when we run into trouble. “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.” That, basically, was the rich fool’s downfall. The way that seemed right to him is, “God has really blessed me! I’m set for life!” He saw his growth of wealth only as a blessing to himself, to horde and care for himself. He forgot about his mortality. He forgot to enquire of the Lord, what He would have him do with what he had gained. “But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then, who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
James keeps us humble in our planning when he admonishes: “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.” We plan things that make sense to us, but we run into trouble when we begin to believe that those plans are invincible, unstoppable, a sure thing.
The truth is, we don’t know. I think of how many plans that have been thwarted just in the past few months because of the Corona Virus. Businesses have failed, homes have been lost, surgeries have been postponed compromising health. Many things have not gone according to plan. So many are devastated by this turn of events. They created plans that made sense to them at the time but aren’t working out as they had hoped. I wonder how many church’s pastors were thinking of planning for future ministry and going to use words like “Having 2020 vision!” for the New Year. But nobody saw Covid coming as it did!
As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” Jesus makes this sin obvious in the rich fool, when he says: “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” He had no thought of doing good, especially for others. He was looking for the easy life with selfish thoughts, instead of asking the Lord how he could use what he had been given to bless others. Even as we take care of the house we live in now and try to make it more to our liking, we keep thinking about who we are preparing it for when we let it go later.
In his Jewish culture, he would have been taught from an early age about God’s heart for the poor and needy. He would have known about it from the Psalms and the teaching of the prophets, even the Proverbs! So, in his case, to hoard and not share would have been seen as evil because he knew what scripture teaches about what God considers “good,” and was not even thinking about doing it.
In the parable, when God comes and says to the man: “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then, who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” It was like having God come to him and say, “I gave you these blessings to share, now, since you won’t, I will get you out of the way and share it with the needy anyway and you will have no control over the blessing I gave you.”
God will have His way. The rich fool wasn’t going to get away with hording God’s blessings. We do well to hold our plans loosely. James advises: “Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the LORD’S Will, we will live and do this or that.” God’s plans are the sure thing. Ours may not be. For example, while Kathy and I hope to go to Israel, it’s pretty obvious that we hold that plan loosely, since we have not been above dipping into the money jar from time to time for something completely other. We try to live in such a way that our hearts are set on fulfilling God’s plans and modifying ours as needed. We know that we don’t know many things that He does. And, especially as we grow older, we are aware of our mortality more than ever.
Prayer: Father thank You for wisdom from on high to guide us on our humble paths. Today, I will plan to live for You. And may any plans I make for later on, always be submitted to Your will and desire that we remember we are blessed to be a blessing. So may all my plans end up blessing others. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Song: Life Song
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