Deo Volente

I had one of those "aha!" moments last Thursday evening when I realized that, unless I wanted to get soaking wet, I would not be able to walk to pick up my rental car on Friday morning. That doesn't sound like a paradigm shifting moment, but it came close. The "aha" was how much I assume that tomorrow will be pretty much like today. I rent a car once or twice a month since moving to So Cal because it is cheaper for the ministry I work with to rent a car and pay the gas than it is to reimburse me at the current rates. For almost two years I have walked about a mile to pick up my rental car. I am in a rhythm. I walk over to the rental car place, pick up my car, drive home. I drop the rental car off and walk home. The weather is always such that it is certainly no problem for me to walk.

Until last week. Contrary to Albert Hammond's chart-topping 1972 song, it really does rain in Southern California. I had walked the route so often in non-rainy weather that I assumed I would do so once more. Au contraire! And it got me thinking about how much I make the assumption that the plans I had for yesterday and today will, automatically, be good plans for tomorrow. But God calls us to live each day with "Lord willing" as the underpinning of our life and decision making. An acknowledgement of God's sovereign prerogative in our lives. That is, as God tells us in the letter of James and other portions of Scripture, we are to leave room for God, in His providence, to change the details of our life. We leave room for the Holy Spirit. We leave room for rain.