I was spending time with the Lord this morning and read in James 4:13-15:  “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.'”

Life is hard.  If it hasn’t been for you personally yet, it will, rest assured.  Just look at the news – bombings, school shootings, earthquakes.  Personally, we have had a close family friend die recently and another friend’s daughter (who is only 2) had a horrific accident with her finger.

But two things really encouraged me as I read this morning –

1 – Life goes fast – One thing I am reminded of daily, especially recently, is that we don’t know what will happen tomorrow.  This life goes fast.  A vapor.  A mist.  Picture someone exhaling warm breath into the freezing cold.  There it is.  Then its gone.  But when circumstances are really rough, we can find comfort and courage in thinking “In the eternal scheme of things, He’s only asking you to do this hard thing for a few minutes.  You can be faithful.  It’s not that long.”

2 – Every new day is willed by God and God is the one with the real plan – If the Lord didn’t will for us to be alive, we (believers) would have seen His face by now.  God knows what tomorrow will bring.  He looks upon every situation in context of what is, what was, and what is to come.  He plans it all and nothing surprises him.

Such great encouragement to hang on, that life is so short and God not only knew what was coming and is working it out according to His good and perfect plans, but that he is only asking us to do this hard thing for a few minutes.  Such encouragement to keep “fighting the good fight, finishing the race, keeping the faith (2 Tim. 4:7).”

Here is a picture of Kinsley with her friend Faith.  Faith’s parents, Jeff and Lindsey, served with us in Kentucky, and have remained good friends of ours despite both of us moving to different teams.  Faith is the one who had the finger accident.  When Ed was out of town at briefing last weekend for his trip to Senegal this summer, I loaded up the girls and we went to visit Faith, Jeff, Lindsey, and their son Timmy.  It was so good to see friends who have been there through a lot of life’s ups and downs and to hug their necks as they are going through a hard time.  We went to Piratefest (a festival they have in the town they are living in) and the girls had fun jumping on the bounce house, going down the inflatable slide, and eating fun food!