A Wisp of Fog

For weeks it's been grey and foggy in our part of the world.  This picture is the foggy view out our bedroom window--by my "worship chair"--a few mornings ago.  

And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, "Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we're off to such and such a city for the year. We're going to start a business and make a lot of money." You don't know the first thing about tomorrow. You're nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, "If the Master wills it and we're still alive, we'll do this or that." --James 4:13, The Message paraphrase

I've been thinking lately about how fragile and transient life is.  Because I am healthy and energetic and have the ability to do most things I put my mind to, I tend to feel as though I'm in control of my life.  My schedule gets locked up from morning until night, usually a week or two in advance.  The problem is not an awareness of my mortality.  It's a sense that if there were twice as many hours in a day, I could take a step toward immortality, so to speak, by filling the extra hours up with all the things I'd want to do, all the things I have to do, and all the things I dream of someday doing.

There have been reminders in the past year of mortality, both mine and others.  One day a friend is here, and the next day she's gone.  One day I have all my organs, and the next day one of them has been excised.  (In this case I was fortunate that it was an organ I can live without.)  It has occurred to me that one day I could be here, and the next day I could be gone, and the world would go on just the same without me.  I don't even think I would leave a noticeable hole for long, in the grand scheme of things.  Sure, there are people who would miss me, and some would even miss what I've hoped to contribute to the world.  But soon they would be gone, too.

We're like a "wisp of fog," in the words of the Bible as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson.

These thoughts are not meant to be morbid. Just as people who face a terminal illness suddenly realize what's really important in life, the recognition of our own mortality and brief stay on this earth is probably a good consideration now and then to keep us focused on what's important. It's not my world, subject to my control over myself or my efforts to direct others.  We are a bit more healthy when we realize it's the Master's world, and we're just here for a little while, as He wills it.