D.V.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” – James 4.13-15

On the 10^th of September 2001 the people of New York City went about their regular business. Business meetings were scheduled for the next day at the World Trade Center. People planned to meet for coffee or breakfast. Tourists had ‘See World Trade Center’ on their calendars for the next day. As offices closed that afternoon people said things like ‘see you in the morning!’ as they locked up their offices and waved good bye. Lunch plans were made. People packed for flights to far off destinations. Travellers from all over the world closed their suitcases and set them by the doors looking forward to trips to America the next day.

It was just going to another Tuesday.

But it wasn’t just another Tuesday. The whole world changed that day. By 10.00 there was no World Trade Center. Planes were grounded in mid-flight. Thousands were dead. Plans and appointments and schedules and holidays were all cancelled.

Who knew what would happen ‘tomorrow?’

Our tomorrows are no more certain than theirs. We don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring. So, in reality, it is a bit brash to set our plans in concrete. When we set our plans in concrete to the extent that we are thrown off our game when they fail into place we are setting ourselves up as mini-gods.

We don’t know what is going to happen even later today, much less tomorrow. Therefore our attitude ought to be ‘God willing’ when we talk about the future. That is one of the vestiges left over from Catholic Ireland. A lot of older people still say ‘God willing’ when talking about the future.

In older days almost every one included the letters ‘D.V.’ when announcing upcoming events. In most cases it was probably just custom, but those letters stand for ‘Deo Volente’ which is Latin for ‘God willing.’  I like that custom because it reminds of who is really in control.

So whether we use ‘D.V.’ or not or say ‘God willing’ or not our attitude does need to be that our plans need to be open to whatever God allows to come our way tomorrow – because we certainly don’t know what it holds.