Breathing Room | The Time of Your Life
Breathing Room-The Time of Your Life
James 4:13-17
Sermon Recap
On Sunday we explored the way James invites us to think about our time. Instead of asking, “What time is it?” the deeper spiritual question is, “What am I doing with the time I’ve been given?”
In this passage, James addresses people who are confidently mapping out their future—“Today or tomorrow we will go… we will spend… we will make money”—and then he interrupts them with two grounding truths:
1. Life is brief. James compares our lives to a mist—a reminder that our days are limited, and that every moment matters.
2. Life is meant to be aligned with God’s will. James encourages a posture of humility: “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” Our time is a gift from God, and how we use it becomes our gift back to God.
The message also challenged us to put first things first. Not trying to squeeze the most important things into the cracks of our schedules, but shaping our lives intentionally around what matters most. When we begin our days by turning toward God, we don’t love our lives less—we love them better.
Go a Little Deeper
1. James and the Wisdom Tradition
James writes like a wisdom teacher in the tradition of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. His concern is not simply what we believe, but what kind of lives we actually live. Our habits, priorities, and schedules reveal what we love most.
2. The Illusion of Control
In the Greco-Roman world, merchants commonly planned travel, trade, and earnings months in advance—much like we do today. James isn’t discouraging planning; he’s confronting the illusion that tomorrow belongs to us. When James says, “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow,” he’s gently calling us back to humility and attentiveness.
3. Putting First Things First
Spiritually speaking, our lives grow healthier when the most important things are the first things—not the leftover things. James pushes readers to stop living on autopilot and instead be intentional about what gets our best attention, energy, and time.
4. “Swallowing the Frog”
This wasn’t explored fully on Sunday, but it connects beautifully here. The phrase comes from Mark Twain’s humorous claim that if the first thing you do each morning is swallow a live frog, nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.
It’s an image for this:
Do the most important, weightiest thing first—especially the thing you keep avoiding.
We often delay difficult but necessary actions: a hard conversation, a needed boundary, a task we know matters, a practice that would make us healthier, a spiritual rhythm we keep meaning to begin.
When we avoid these things, we don’t just delay them—we prolong the discomfort, anxiety, and low-grade dread around them. Swallowing the frog means choosing the meaningful over the easy, the important over the urgent, the long-term good over short-term comfort.
In James’ language, it’s another way of saying: Align your time with God’s will, not just your impulses. Start with what matters most.
Discussion Questions
1. What part of James 4:13–17 stands out to you—life’s brevity, our tendency to assume the future, or the encouragement to seek God’s will?
2. When you consider your daily or weekly rhythms, what tends to get the “first place”? What tends to get pushed to the edges?
3. What’s one “frog” you know you need to swallow—something important you’ve been avoiding because it feels heavy, uncomfortable, or inconvenient?
4. How might doing that one important thing first change the rest of your day or week?
5. Where do you sense God inviting you to be more intentional with your time?
Suggested Practices
1. A Life-Giving / Life-Draining Time Audit
Set aside a few minutes to make two lists:
· Things I’m doing with my time that bring life
· Things that drain life or distract me from what matters
Pray through these lists. Ask God for clarity about what might need to be added, removed, or rearranged.
2. Swallow One Frog
Choose one thing—big or small—that you’ve been avoiding but know matters. Do it first one day this week. Pay attention to the shift it creates in your mind, emotions, and sense of freedom.
3. A Simple Morning “Yes”
Begin your day by saying: “God, here I am. Your will, not mine. Help me see what matters today.” Just a moment of orientation can anchor the whole day.
Closing Prayer
God of our days and our moments, teach us to use our time with wisdom and grace. Help us recognize the things that truly matter and give us courage to face the things we tend to avoid. Center us in your will, strengthen our hearts, and awaken us to the beauty of the life we’re living right now. Amen