By: Curtis Baker 
A popular way of assessing the scheme of our own existence is to view our life as if it is a kind of story. If life is a story, then, of course, there must be a plot. And if there is a plot then there must be an author who has put the plot together. If all this is true, then our job is to simply live out the plot that has been predetermined for us.
There are many benefits to viewing our life in this way. For one, it gives us a nice sense of beginning and end to our life. It gives us a feeling of comfort that our life is not ultimately our responsibility because we are merely following the plot determined for us. And maybe best of all, it allows us to think that maybe the best is yet to come because every story has a grand climax that we all anticipate.
Having said all that, there are also some down sides to seeing our life as a story. If all our lives are a predetermined story then we feel the need to constantly search to discover what our story is and what our purpose is in it. If our life is a story, and someone has already written the plot, then what if the story that is written is a bad one? Can nothing be done about this? But worse than these things, the biggest downside to seeing our life as a story is…it is completely false! Our lives are not a story; they are nothing like a story.
The truth about our existence is much of life is random. We don’t know why things have happened to us, nor can we predict what will happen to us in the future. The writer of Ecclesiastes says that “time and chance overtakes us all,” and he is right. There is no grand story of our life into which we have to try to fit. There is nothing guaranteed for us in the future because of some prewritten plot. All we really have is today, and nothing else!
This is important for us to understand because if we insist on seeing our life as a kind of predetermined story, then there is a constant temptation to put off the good things we know we ought to do today, because we think there will be some point in the future when it will be more suitable to our story to do it. Someday, when I have more time, I will study my Bible more, but not today. Someday, when I have a little more money, I will help someone in need, but not today. Someday, when I feel a little more energetic, I will do more to help the church, but not today.
It is against this kind of thinking that James writes to the churches and says, “Now listen, you who say ‘Tomorrow we will go and do this or that.’ How do you even know what will happen tomorrow?” The answer is, “We don’t!” We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Tomorrow may come or it may not come. Nothing is guaranteed to us. Given that fact, James then tells us how we should live our life. “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do (Right now! Today!) and doesn’t do it, sins.”
Is there some good that you ought to be doing but have been putting it off until a more convenient time in your story? Quit putting it off, because there is no guarantee for tomorrow. Do the good that you know you ought to do today, because today is all you have. If the Lord wills, then tomorrow will come. And if it comes you will do the same thing tomorrow that you did today; you will do the good you know you ought to do. If we will only commit our lives to that, then at the end of our days maybe we will be able to look back and say, “I lived a good story.”
(Don’t forget to join me for A Message from the Heart radio program Sunday evening at 8:00pm on KJAK 92.7FM, or streaming live at www.kjak.com)
(curtisbaker@hotmail.com)
Write to: P.O. Box 157, Slaton, TX 79364
