Forty-five minutes into our wait the air conditioning went off in the airplane, and I had something else to think about. The pilot came on again and said, "We don't have any air conditioning, folks, and some of you have noticed that it's a little hot. Just be patient, because a truck with a generator is on its way." Again, I found myself thinking, "How in the world does this happen?" In place of all of my schemes and ideas about how to fix the airline, Barbara simply says, "Heaven rules."
Who has control?
The issue for me was not just that we were delayed or were missing an event that we wanted to attend, it was that I don't like to be out of control. I had two hours to think about not liking being out of control, and during that time I had thoughts like this: when I think I'm in control, I am actually very presumptuous, because if I think I am in control, I am not really in control. And when I am out of control, I think I ought to be in control. Either way of thinking is presumptuous of me.
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Heaven rules. It's a way of saying that God is in control and I am not. This is the Bible's great teaching called providence. The English word providence comes from the Latin that means pro, beforehand, and video, to see. So it is to see or plan something beforehand. Charles Spurgeon said, "Fate is blind, but providence has eyes." Providence is the great teaching of God's Word that everything happens in order to accomplish God's set purposes.
Most of us move from providence to presumption very easily. We are happy to say that God is in charge until saying God is in charge means something inconvenient for us, like taking a direction that we do not want to take. We try to take charge. We want control. That's presumption. James shows us what this presumption is like and how to lean against it. Note three types of presumption in James 4:13-17-5:3.
Planning presumption
The first way we move from providence to presumption is by forgetting how quickly life changes. "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.' — yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring," says James. He is talking about someone setting out his or her plans for the coming year when no one even knows what will happen the next day.
We tend to claim providence for ourselves, saying that we have the ability to do the pro video, to see ahead. But how quickly life changes. The phone call comes that we did not expect. The boss summons you to her office. The report from the lab comes in. When we see how quickly things can change, presumption is rationally preposterous.