Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”            

James 4:14, 15

It was the day of the closing on our home and everything had moved along like clockwork. Soon the papers would be signed and we would be on to the next phase of our re-location scenario. When I awoke that morning, I was extremely tired, but why shouldn’t I be? I had spent weeks emptying cupboards and packing boxes.

It was less than an hour before we were to leave for the attorney’s office, yet I could barely get out of bed. Getting dressed? I might as well try to climb Mount Everest.

My husband went on to the closing and returned later with the realtor to get my signature on the closing documents. And very vaguely, I recall him driving me to the emergency room and my being admitted to the hospital. But this I do remember: That evening as I lay in my bed, all decked out with oxygen and IV’s, I snuggled down (in a hospital bed, “snuggle down” is a relative term) and thought to myself, “I am just so glad to be here.”

We are a culture that puts high priority on our goings and comings. We value activities events and the public square, often believing that is where the answers are to be found. Peace and quiet and downtime are simply the way we refuel our tanks for another round of going and coming.

The verses from James 4 illustrate how easy it is for our plans, even the good ones, to become idols. Real wisdom isn’t found in pushing through our agenda and asking God’s blessing as an afterthought. Real wisdom lies in resting in His plan, His timing, His ways.

I am not there yet with God. I wish I were. Too often I follow my natural inclination to not only figure out the answer to a problem, but the circumstances and timing. Then I package them as “prayer” and issue them as marching orders to the God of the Universe.

One day, perhaps, I will know how to rest in God as I did in that hospital bed: completely out of my own resources and just so glad to be in the one place where complete healing  could be found.

Nancy Shirah