This statement is shown at the top of a small billboard that sits on a corner lot about one hundred yards from my office. I’ve driven past it many, many times… and frankly, it wasn’t until this morning that I actually read what it said. I’ve seen the artists rendering of what the commercial building would look like, but I haven’t paid attention to the promise made at the top.

For clarity sake you should know that this lot remains vacant. Weeds are cropped to an acceptable but not attractive level. Part of the grand irony is the name of the building… yes, a mirage indeed. Perhaps the joke is on me.

And yet this morning, the impact was far greater than simply a play on words. I was drawn to the times when I’ve posted similar signs in my life.

COMING SOON…

Really? Can I absolutely predict the future? Do I know what the economy will do? What the doctor will say? What the weather will bring? Can I guarantee what others will say or how they will react?

Plans are good. Even renderings of what we think the future might look like… but for Christians there needs to always be an echo in the bottom of our soul that says; "if the Lord wills." There isn’t anything magic about saying it… but there is something vital about acknowledging that our Father; the God of the universe, is ultimately in control. His will trumps our plans. He knows what I can’t ever perceive.

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. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. ~ James 4:13-17 (ESV)

Planning without humility is an offense to the Creator.

"If the Lord wills…" is not an excuse for laziness or sloppiness, rather, it’s an invitation into the splendor of His sovereign design. It’s a place where both hard work and rest can coexist. A place for sweat without worry. For confidence without arrogance.

COMING SOON…

What the Father wills… build there.