Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

                                                    -Proverbs 27:1 NIV

I perform a lot of homegoings. They are sacred opportunities to celebrate the life of departed loved ones. We gather to mourn. We gather
to rejoice that this person lived, that we were privileged to know them, and that we believe we will one day see them again.

And one of my frequent emphases is that tomorrow is not promised. Our lives will all, at some point, end, but no-one knows whether that point is in 60 years or 60 minutes.

Since we cannot predict the future, all we can do is live and love today. We can resolve conflicts today. We can apologize today. We can look to make amends today.

Along with this comes another principle, we should not make promises about something we’ll do in the future, because we do not know if we’ll be able to keep them.  I have plans for the weekend, but I cannot say, with total certainty, that I will be there to see them come to pass. While I hope to live long and will do everything in my power to stay healthy, my date with eternity could be a heart attack, or a speeding car, or a meteorite away. I could be mauled by an escaped orangutan from the Bronx Zoo. (Fun fact: The orangutan Ken Allen escaped from the San Diego Zoo five times in 1985: https://www.newsweek.com/2016/06/24/orangutan-ken-allen-san-diego-zoo-escape-artist-469908.html. These are things Google can teach you.)

Are all of the above unlikely? Sure. And I thank God for it.

The point, though, is that anything can happen to anyone at any time, which should impress upon us the fierce urgency of now. Anything we can address, we should.

There are two violations here:

1. First, we should not boast about ourselves in general. In Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NIV), God says “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,”. We are quick to tout our intellect, power, and wealth. We look to be retweeted, respected, and reported on. God, however, says that the thing that commends us is our proximity to him, demonstrated in how seriously we take kindness, justice, and righteousness. Smart but mean, strong but cruel, and successful but amoral are not boastworthy characteristics. They are shameful.
2. Second, we should be slow to make promises, and wary of people who promise the moon. The future carries inherent uncertainty. We can’t guarantee any result, much less a spectacular one. The star athlete who says they will bring countless titles to a new team is often proven wrong. The politician or CEO who boasts that everything will change with them in charge is often speaking lightly of heavyweight achievements.

Tomorrow is a mystery, but predicting it is an evergreen opportunity. We sell people on the idea of us to get through the door. We may be gambling that once inside, we’ll do well. We may know we won’t, but by then it won’t matter. Some people build entire careers on the lag time between their getting the gig, and your realization that they can’t deliver. By that time, they have your money and to the next group of people they are going to fool.

The thing about cons is they work until they don’t.

If you play with fire, eventually you get burned.

(Photo Credit: Matheus Bertelli)