We Shall See

Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple

- Barry Switzer

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." As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil"

- James 4:13-16

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth

- Mike Tyson

You are not 100% in control of your life. In fact, you are really only in control on the margins and even then only because God, The Universe, Karma and the Flying Spaghetti Monster have allowed you to be. Want proof?

You did not have control over whether you were born in a hospital in the US or a mud hut in some third world country. Your parents probably got to decide whether they would eat right and exercise but even they did not have 100% control over whether you were born with a mental or physical disability. You can choose to wear your seat belt and obey traffic laws but you do not get to decide whether you are t-boned in an intersection by a texting teenage driver who runs the red light. Eat right, exercise, get a good job, a beautiful wife and wonderful kids - get a brain tumor and die young anyway (This has happened to not one but two people I have known).

In recent conversations with adults who have suffered spinal cord injuries far too many of their stories go something like this: "I was driving and the next thing I knew I woke up in the hospital  and couldn't move my legs". We are all a fraction of a second from a chronic or terminal injury or illness.

The fact that you are even alive today is not entirely up to you. You are not in 100% control. Life is a gift and like all gifts, you don't get to control what is underneath the wrapping. Oh sure, we can be good boys and girls and send Santa our wish list but Christmas morning is never 100% what we want or expect. Some gifts in life are better than we expect, some are not.

We Shall See.

I find I am making far fewer declarative statements than I used to. While I have both short and long term goals for my life, I find that I hold those plans much more loosely now. This plays out in little ways in my day-to-day life. Ask me if I will be at your house for dinner next Thursday and my answer will not be "Yes" but rather, "That's my plan . . .". "Will you be home by 2pm?" not "Yes" but "That's my intention . . ." It's a subtle shift in wording but a huge shift in how I approach the world. And of course, when things don't go as "planned", "That Figures".

This is not fatalism or a shirking of responsibility for those things we do have control over but rather learning to live with the truth of James 4 as opposed to the illusion of 100% control. I don't pat myself on the back as much these days as if I can claim 100% responsibility for my successes and I don't beat myself up as much these days as if my every hardship could have been avoided if only I "coulda-shoulda-woulda". I can tell you that my life at 41 is in some ways very different than I had planned. Some of that I had control over and a whole bunch I didn't.

What will my life look like in 1-3-5-10 years? Well, I have some ideas and some plans but, in the end, it's not entirely up to me. The next batter up just might hit a double sending me from first base to third or, as the great theologian Mike Tyson said, life just might punch me in the mouth.

It's the truth and that's okay.

We Shall See.