The Human Agenda

What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?   James 4:1

Quarrels and Conflicts – “I want it and I don’t care how I get it!”  “I deserve better.”  “You can’t treat me like that.”  Have you ever found yourself speaking (or thinking) these things?  If you’re human (and most of us are), then thinking like this is not so unusual, is it? 

James is the apostle of consequences.  Imminently practical, he focuses his attention on the human agenda, explaining how and why we have so much trouble finding real peace in our lives.  Here he uses to Greek words with explosive emotional implications – polemoi and machai.  They both mean hostilities, fights and war, but the first emphasizes public controversy and the second private strife.  James locates the origin of both in our own frustrated desires.  When we are not content with God’s decisions about life, we are vulnerable to all kinds of battles.  When we take control of our own agendas for living, we are subject to internal and external strife.  The bottom line is this:  conflict comes from not getting what we want. 

This isn’t news.  We all know what happens when we begin to mull over our unsatisfied desires.  What’s important is James’ solution to this very human mess.  James does not tell us to penitently deny our desires or subject ourselves to compulsory abstinence training.  No, he suggests something entirely different.  He says that the reason we are unsatisfied is not because our emotional life is full of holes but rather because we have not asked God to satisfy us.  “You have not because you ask not!”  Wow!  That’s condemning.  It suggests that God is more than capable, and more than willing, to give us the peaceful and harmonious life we really want.  God is not the problem.  We are the problem.  We think that handling our emotional Swiss cheese is our responsibility when the truth is much simpler.  We are not responsible for filling in the gaps.  We are responsible for taking the gaps to God.

You can have an emotionally satisfying life, but not if you think your agenda will bring relief.  James knows that we are constantly at war with ourselves over these human emotions.  To rely on our own strength is foolhardy.  The real solution is to ask God for what you lack – and then wait for Him to answer.  It’s no good asking if you’re not willing to wait.  You might as well engage the battle – and lose the war.  God delivers – at exactly the right time according to His perfect agenda.