Supreme Human Arrogance

Supreme Human Arrogance

James 4:13-17

            It is rare that I write on the same passage twice in a row.  However, I’m working my way through the Epistle of James (once again) in my own devotions, and these verses have really captured my attention.  Sometimes, as I journal in the morning, I find myself digressing, wandering from a direct interpretation of the passage with which I’m working, and “riffing” (taking off in a new direction) on the verses.  Such is the case here.  I trust that I will not go so far afield that I change the meaning of James’s words.

            “As it is, you boast in your arrogance.  All such boasting is evil.”

            What kind of boasting is James concerned with here?  What arrogance is he talking about? 

            James has been telling his readers that for them to make plans for the future without giving God credit is foolish at best, and totally misguided at worst.  Instead of saying, “Tomorrow I will…,” we should say, “If God wills, then tomorrow I will….”  Of course, we frequently forget to do this.  Perhaps it’s all right to say, “Tomorrow I will…” as long as we acknowledge in our minds that even as near a future as the next twenty-four hours is completely in God’s hands.  Even though we may not begin statements about the future by saying, “God willing,” we must at least think it.

            We display our arrogance when we assume total control of our own lives without depending on God.  When I believe I can do a better job of running my life than God can, I not only fail to give God the credit for my ongoing life, but I substitute my own will for God’s leading, most often going in the wrong direction. 

            Do I dare to imagine that I can do a better job of running my life than God can?  Am I so audacious that I assume I know better than God what is in my best interest?  Often this attitude begins with a statement such as, “I have a right to do what I want.”  I assume too much importance for myself if I feel my rights outweigh obedience to God.

            As usual, Shakespeare said it better than anyone.  In Act 5 of Macbeth, he has the title character say, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.”  Doesn’t that put me in my place! 

God is eternal.  God sees the entire history of the universe, past, present and future as a panorama.  He knows what’s best for me, how my life fits in to the universal scheme.  

I am temporal.  My life exists within time, bounded by my birth and my death.  I can know only what has already happened, and can see no further ahead than this moment.  When, exercising my ego, I presume to know more than God, I indeed become a very poor actor, strutting and fretting upon life’s stage as if I were a main character, when all I am is a bit player who can be written out of the script in a moment, as easily as taking an eraser to a pencil marking.

Poor me, the walking shadow, incapable of learning from past experience that whenever I take charge of my life I make a mess of it.  Poor me, an insignificant character in the drama of life, who wants to upstage not only more important actors, but the playwright as well.  Poor me, who not only can’t learn his lines, but doesn’t even know his place.

Yet, whenever I take control and bungle my life, and then come to the realization that I can’t do as good a job as my Creator at running my affairs, God waits to take charge again.  When I ask forgiveness, and put my life back into God’s hands, the play turns out all right.