We’re a planning people! I’ve always been intrigued, even a little inspired, by the child who seems to live every day and sometimes every moment of every day completely independent of every other day or moment. It’s as if they live completely "in the moment." Yesterday’s scuffed knee belongs to yesterday. Today is a new day! The only recollection of yesterday’s injury comes when he bumps it again today....and then it becomes today’s event....as though yesterday had nothing to do with it. As for "tomorrow," well...that’ll belong to "tomorrow" and has nothing to do with "today." And so they live through the toddler years with a strange sort of reckless liberty. We learn rather quickly however that this is neither a wise nor a safe way to live. We learn instinctively that yesterday’s experiences are relevant to the experiences of today and that the two combined are relevant and important to the events and experiences of tomorrow. Eventually we learn that the "moment" of today is only a single moment in a lifetime of "moments" and that all these "moments" taken collectively are....well....Life! Not long after this eye opening revelation, and the instructive pain of numerous "scuffed knees" we begin to realize that we have a capacity to influence those "moments" of life. We begin to learn that the scuffed knee moment was connected to the moment when we decided to build a plywood ramp to jump our bike over the drainage ditch which was connected to the moment we learned to ride a bike which was in turn connected to the moment we asked for the bike as a Christmas present which was then connected to the moment that our parents purchased it....etc. We realize that an alteration of either of these moments might have resulted in a different outcome. The pain of the scuffed knee might have been avoided had we chosen not to jump the ditch! So we make the adjustment. We didn’t like the pain of the scuffed knee, so from that day forward, anticipating the potential injury, we act in a "moment" in such a way as to avoid a repeat of the injury. Almost without recognizing it, we’re planning! We’re learning that all the "moments" of life are connected and that no single moment passes that doesn’t have an effect on another moment. So we become planners by nature and recognizing that we can manipulate the events of tomorrow by making specific decisions today, we quickly become very adept at planning. We grow so accustomed to this newly discovered "power" that our planning becomes increasingly more complex and long term. We plan for our retirement, some with exceptional foresight, even from their twenties. We plan for our careers, beginning as early as middle school. We make plans for where we will live and how long we will live there; for what we’ll do while we’re there and our purposes for doing it. We’re commended by our peers for our wisdom and discipline. We’re hailed by society in general as a success and offered up by parents to their children as models for achieving a happy and fulfilling life. It all seems good and commendable and no doubt society as a whole benefits from such careful and disciplined planning. There is certainly Biblical precedent for doing so. A brief search of the "Stewardship" passages will offer undeniable proof that "planning" is a good thing and ought to be a part of every Christian’s life. True as this is, it is all the more shocking to read the words of James when he writes that there is a type of planning that amounts to "Boasting" and is rooted in "Arrogance." A type of planning that rather than being good, is actually "Evil." There is a distinction to be observed in the passage between "Evil Plans" and "Planning that’s Evil." "Evil plans" are relatively easy to identify in that the plans themselves are contrary to Biblical principles. The aims of the planning themselves are unrighteous aims and therefore evil. "Planning that’s Evil" however is significantly less identifiable since the plans themselves are not necessarily evil or sinful, nor does James suggest that they are. In James 4:13 he states simply and generally the plan as follows:

They were:

1. Planing where to go

2. Planning how long to stay

3. Planning the activity to be engaged in while there

4. Planning the purpose for going

But of those planning in such a way he writes in verse 16a "....You boast in your arrogance..." So then according to James, planning like this amounts to "Boasting" and such boasting is rooted in "Arrogance." Perhaps even more stunning is verse 16b in which he writes that "all such boasting is evil."

Summarizing then, I conclude that James means that there is a way of planning that is evil and that one cannot assume that good plans equate to good planning. Obviously, something can be lacking even in good plans that render the planning sinful or "evil."

James doesn’t say that they were planning to go to an evil or corrupt city. He doesn’t suggest that they were staying an inappropriate amount of time in that city. He doesn’t say that the activity they intended to engage in was sinful or evil. He doesn’t even say that their motivation to make a profit while they were there was evil.

What made their planning "evil" was the presumption with which they were planning!

How did they know whether the city they chose would not erupt into a riot or be the epicenter of a massive earthquake? How did they know if the time they planned to stay there would not be cut short abruptly by an illness or death in the family back home or by some unfortunate personal circumstance? How did they know whether the activity in which they planned to engage would not suddenly be restricted or that it would not be received by the population of that city? How did they know whether their venture might not be successful or that their profits might not be confiscated by officials of that city or be stolen by bandits? Their planning was full of presumptions!

Presumptions Born of Arrogance

The first of these was their presumption about their future. He writes in verse 14a, "You don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow!" In other words, they were planning as though tomorrow would be just like today and the day before; that time would march on uninterrupted just as it always had. The presumption was that they had some personal insight into the future upon which they planned. This assumption was rooted in their arrogance; their presumption that such foresight was within their grasp was nothing short of boasting and as such amounted to evil akin to idiolatry since only God has ordained and can foreknow and foresee what tomorrow holds.

The second of these presumptions was in regards to the nature of human life itself. James writes in verse 14b, "...you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." The connection here seems to be to their first presumption. It is as though James is saying, "you presume to possess an infallible and accurate foreknowledge of the events of the future and you plan accordingly but you are in comparison to time and history as a vapor or mist!" "You’re a single dissipating cloud born along by tradewinds across the heavens." The world and it’s events might go on another ten thousand years and your life and wisdom and contributions will be but a minuscule grain of sand in an ocean of time and circumstances ordained and known only by God. How can one so humble and relatively insignificant; indeed an "earthen vessel" boast of such divine attributes as foreknowledge and infallibility? This is arrogance! And this is evil!

The most innocuous plans...the most innocent plans....laid upon such presumption is indeed evil!

The Humble and God-Glorifying Alternative

James offers the alternative to such "evil" planning in verse 15. He writes, "instead, you ought to say....if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that," Don’t overlook the word "instead!" What he offers is the alternative to evil planning. In the place of presumptuous, boastful, arrogant and evil self determined planning, we ought to say "if the Lord wills!" One is not likely to "say" this without having given some thought as to whether or not it is indeed the Lord’s will! And one who has seriously considered this must make the Scriptures as his primary resource for making that determination. This thought and consideration accomplishes two things. First it purifies the planning, assuring that the things planned for are good and God glorifying things. We cannot justify a plan to exploit someone’s suffering for personal profit while searching the scriptures to see if that is the will of the Lord. Secondly, it puts the planning itself on solid ground in that it recognizes our finite understanding and tends toward an increasing reliance upon the Lord. It recognizes that time, circumstances and indeed our life itself is utterly and completely dependent upon the Sovereign grace of God; that our plans are always subject to His purposes.

This is "Right" and as James writes in verse 17, "....to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin."

May all of our planning spring from this deep sense of our dependency upon the grace of God and from a desire that His will be accomplished rather than the fleeting and ever changing desires of our own deceitful hearts.