Jeff Adams

Next month marks the 42^nd year of a love affair with Latin America. I fell in love with Latin America even before I fell in love with my wife. Fortunately, she does not perceive this as a threat. The truth is that she became enamored of Latin America before I did. Even though my ethnic roots are Scottish, English and German combination, I actually feel more Latino than anything else. As ridiculous as that may sound, I really don’t know what it is to feel Scottish, English or German. And, leaving my birth nation at a tender age, so much of my thought processes, attitudes and characteristics came to maturity in the warm climes of Central America.

From the beginning, the famous “culture shock” was not that much of a problem. But I remember a phrase heard hundreds of times in daily conversation that bothered me – If God wills. Anyone with experience in Latin America knows that this phrase si Dios quiere, if God wills, functions as a period to just about any statement. The little gringo inside of me screamed out, If God wills? Of course God is willing! This is nothing more than a cultural excuse in case something doesn’t work out as planned, or worse, if one does not want to be personally responsible.

So reasoned that little interior gringo, that Anglo-Saxon remnant that desperately resisted any more cultural changes in my life. Certainly God is sovereign and can do as he pleases, but we have the obligation to plan and be responsible.

One day in my early Latin life, I was reading the epistle of James, brother of our Lord. There is was, and I couldn’t deny it. Right there in the holy, authorized and blessed Reina-Valera revision of 1960 (about the only version available in those days). It looks like this in the King James:

It looks like this in the King James:

For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. James 4:15

Amazing! There it was! If the Lord will. To say if the Lord will is biblical. But what is the meaning of that? What is its proper context?

Reading in James yesterday, I was reminded of my initial cultural resistance to that phrase if God wills. More than anything, James 4:13-17 establishes the importance of God’s sovereignty in daily life. This is not to say that it is wrong or sinful to make plans. Of course not! This is simply to remind us that all human plans are always subject to God’s providence, like it or not. God does not exist to help us with our plans; we exist to serve God to carry out his plans.

If we have something in mind, good or bad, premeditated or spontaneous, all is if the Lord wills. We don’t even have the guarantee of tomorrow. To say if God wills can be nothing more than a cultural habit, a cliché. But, above all, if the Lord wills is to be our constant and central attitude in all our thoughts, words, plans and actions.

Speaking of context, how often do we take James 4:17 out of context?

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Clearly there is a general principle and universal application here that teaches that the sins of omission are just as serious as the sins of commission. But the immediate context has to do with this same idea of divine providence and the sovereignty of God. If it is true that we have no guarantee of our next breath, then we should seize and embrace every moment and every opportunity that God gives.

Putting it all together, James is warning us of the error of thinking that we are in control of our lives through our plans and efforts. God is sovereign and we have no guarantee of tomorrow. To think otherwise is arrogance James says. It is no sin to plan; the problem is the attitude of pride and control. Seeing correctly that each day is a gift of God, James encourages us to see our daily chores and opportunities as being divine chores and opportunities to be seized. To understand this and do nothing is sin to us.

James left me thinking about my daily attitude. This passage deserves our meditation. Maybe I’ll have more to say about this later – if the Lord wills.