James 4:13

Some people go on endless journeys for the sake of business and the profits which they can make thereby, enduring even sea travel for their sake. Some fight in order to get some advantage over others by increasing their power. Still others fatten their purses by cheating and by extortion, bringing down fire and brimstone on their heads.

Whoever says, Today or tomorrow we will go to that city, and we will spend a year there, and we will trade and make a profit.
"Whoever says, Today." It does not take away power or free will but shows that not everything is in his hands: for even the heavenly needs grace. For although one may strive, run, engage in business, and do all things necessary for life, one should not attribute these to one's own efforts, but to divine kindness. For Jeremiah says: "Lord, life is not in man himself." (Jer. 10:33) And the author of Proverbs (Παροιμιαστής) says: "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring." (Prov. 27:1)

Behold now, you who say: "Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and spend a year there, and trade, and make a profit," yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. He notes the folly in this kind of planning in many ways, since clearly they both consult about the increase of profit and assume they will live for a long time, and that it is within their power to spend a year there, and in all of these things they disdain to recall the judgment of the Supreme Judge to mind.

He does not destroy free will, but shows that not everything depends on man himself — the grace from above is also needed, for one may run about, and trade, and do everything necessary for life, but one must ascribe this not to one's own labors, but solely to the lovingkindness of God. Jeremiah also says: "O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself" (Jer. 10:23), and the author of Proverbs: "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth" (Prov. 27:1).

Our business is to get them away from the eternal, and from the Present. With this in view, we sometimes tempt a human (say a widow or a scholar) to live in the Past. But this is of limited value, for they have some real knowledge of the past and it has a determinate nature and, to that extent, resembles eternity. It is far better to make them live in the Future. Biological necessity makes all their passions point in that direction already, so that thought about the Future inflames hope and fear. Also, it is unknown to them, so that in making them think about it we make them think of unrealities. In a word, the Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time--for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays. Hence the encouragement we have given to all those schemes of thought such as Creative Evolution, Scientific Humanism, or Communism, which fix men's affections on the Future, on the very core of temporality. Hence nearly all vices are rooted in the future. Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead. Do not think lust an exception. When the present pleasure arrives, the sin (which alone interests us) is already over. The pleasure is just the part of the process which we regret and would exclude if we could do so without losing the sin; it is the part contributed by the Enemy, and therefore experienced in a Present. The sin, which is our contribution, looked forward.

The assumption which you want him to go on making is so absurd that, if once it is questioned, even we cannot find a shred of argument in its defence. The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift; he might as well regard the sun and moon as his chattels. He is also, in theory, committed to a total service of the Enemy; and if the Enemy appeared to him in bodily form and demanded that total service for even one day, he would not refuse. He would be greatly relieved if that one day involved nothing harder than listening to the conversation of a foolish woman; and he would be relieved almost to the pitch of disappointment if for one half-hour in that day the Enemy said "Now you may go and amuse yourself". Now if he thinks about his assumption for a moment, even he is bound to realise that he is actually in this situation every day. When I speak of preserving this assumption in his mind, therefore, the last thing I mean you to do is to furnish him with arguments in its defence. There aren't any. Your task is purely negative. Don't let his thoughts come anywhere near it. Wrap a darkness about it; and in the centre of that darkness let his sense of ownership-in-Time lie silent, uninspected, and operative.