If the Lord wills.

James 4:13-17, Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.

One of my teachers mentioned that in the past people would sign their letters with the abbreviation D. V., short for Deo Volente (Latin: Lord Willing), and that it was considered rude and presumptuous not to do so! Now, the online free dictionary lists 53 other definitions, including Digital Video, Darth Vader, Data Valid, Decoy Vehicle and Dorsal Ventral. We arrange our schedules, use the computer to remind us and get very upset when travel plans don’t work out exactly as planned. We expect the airline to make up for the fact that violent weather has rearranged their multi-dimensional scheduling problems in order to make our travel safe, if not always convenient, when we are stranded at an alternative landing place for hours without sufficient fuel to run the air conditioning! Perhaps we ought to stop to consult Him as we make our plans? D. V.

We know that Your ways are higher than our ways; help us to keep our focus on You and Your desires today and every day.