Snow In South Carolina!

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This week Kim and I came down to South Carolina to be with her parents who are facing some challenges and needed our help.  Since we weren’t coming down for vacation we didn’t have high expectations about what our time here would be like, except for on thing: we were looking forward to warmer weather.  Wouldn’t you know it, our first morning here we woke up to snow!  It was the first snow they had seen all year!  And, no one down here even has a brush to clean the snow off the car!  I thought it was some kind of cruel joke!

We all know life is full of surprises, some good and some not so good. When we wake up in the morning we never know what we are going to face that day. We might make our plans (and if you know me, I do like making plans!), but life is filled with its twists and turns—i.e. all kinds of things that can throw our plans off course.  Even just a change in the weather can cause a change in our plans.  In the end, we make our plans, but life forces us to have to be very flexible.

The apostle James wrote, “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.” (James 4:13-15 – NIV)

 In other words, all of our plans ought to be submitted to God’s will for our lives. Only he knows what is store for us. And, only he knows what is best for us. Although that may be scary for some of us, it really ought to be a great comfort to us. In the end, our lives are not just left to fate or chance or even to the weather; our lives are in the hands of God our heavenly Father. Thus, when we wake up in the morning, facing the unknowns of a new day, we can face it with confidence rather than fear knowing that God is with us and that he is at work in the midst of all things.  His plans and purposes for our lives will always succeed. 

So today, whatever your plans might be, take a moment to stop and pray, “…not my will but yours be done.”  (Luke 22:42 – NIV)  Let’s believe that even the surprises of our lives are in his hands—even the snow in South Carolina!

Have a great day!

Pastor Tim Harris