The tone changes here.
No gentle encouragement.
No careful instruction.
A prophet has walked into the room.
Like Jonah in Nineveh,
James points and says:
Look. You stand condemned.
The merchants make their plans.
The wealthy count their coins.
The powerful drag their own people
before the courts.
Silver. Gold.
The things that seem untouchable.
James says, Look again.
Even the things we trust most
cannot carry the weight
we place upon them.
The years teach us this.
When you are four,
a year feels endless.
When you are seven,
you cannot wait to be eight.
But somewhere along the way
the current changes direction.
No one says,
“I can’t wait to be seventy-five.”
Instead we begin reaching
for the brakes.
The years that once crawled
begin to run.
And we discover
that old does not feel old
from the inside.
We are mist.
A breath on a winter morning.
Not worthless.
Just temporary.
Yet we live as though
we own tomorrow.
Next year.
Next city.
Next promotion.
Next investment.
As though God is not God,
and his kingdom does not matter.
We want certainty.
Jesus offers companionship.
We want a map.
He says, “Come, follow me.”
The disciples were not given a plan,
they were given a person.
Life is a series of decisions.
Take this job.
Leave that one.
Move here.
Stay there.
We worry about stepping
on the right stones,
while Jesus teaches us
to walk in the right direction.
God’s will is not hidden.
Know Christ.
Become like him.
The rest unfolds
along the road.
And roads are rarely straight.
There are droughts
we do not understand.
Storms we would never choose.
Seasons when the next step
is hidden in fog.
But God is not growing mushrooms.
Mushrooms appear overnight,
given enough rain
and humidity.
God grows gumtrees.
Slowly.
Through heat and frost,
wind and dry seasons.
Ring upon ring.
Year upon year.
Strength formed
where no one can see.
So perhaps the question is not,
“What will happen tomorrow?”
The question is,
“What am I leaning my life against today?”
A ladder can climb high.
But it matters
what it rests upon.
James says,
Look.
Before it is too late,
look.
You cannot control tomorrow.
But you can give tomorrow
to Jesus.
The job you love.
The job you endure.
The plans that excite you.
The fears that wake you.
Place your mist-like life
into eternal hands.
And walk.
Not according to a plan,
but according to a person.
For the way we live matters.
The kingdom matters.
We are called
to walk in the way of Jesus,
with kingdom expectation,
until we finally see
the One we have been following
all along.
Original message by Lou Fortier, The Bridge Church Macquarie Park NSW
21 June 2026
The Afterword 
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