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“Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise”
by Ky M. Bishop
James 4:13-17
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, " If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. (NASU)
Today’s redneck phrase is just a country way of saying, “to the best of my ability, I plan on doing whatever it is I've told you”. It is just a backwoods boy’s way of being sincere. This phrase has a great deal of spiritual value to it as seen from the verse in James 4.
According to the book of James, speculation is pure foolishness. To be more specific, the foolishness is less in the speculation and more in the disregarding of God and in the idea that we can be independent of His plans. Over planning, under planning or perfect planning, it doesn't matter, “unless the Lord makes the plans, the labor is in vain”.
In today’s society we've gotten into a real bad habit of trying to tell God how to run His planet. We are like the inmates that have taken over the prison. The atmosphere is total chaos. (Not a good comparison between God and His planet, but never the less, the outcome is the same).
When I was growing up we had a neighbor that would use today’s phrase on a consistent basis. He was a crusty old farmer named Willy.
When he arrived for a visit he would use today’s phrase in a sentence to announce his arrival, and when he would leave, he would use the phrase to end his visit. His passion for the phrase and his insistence on using it so frequently earned him the name “Good Lord Willin Willy”. Of course, because he was so tough, nobody had the courage to call him that to his face.
Probably the most incredible thing about Willy, was that the phrase for him was not just something that he threw out casually. In actuality, the phrase had more to do with his real life than most people knew.
Willy and his family lived far back in the woods in an old log home that you had to cross a low water creek to even get too. Since we lived in an area where the weather changed almost on the hour, there was always a chance that a quick rain would flood he and his family in. For him, the chances were always high.
Also, even though I never knew Willy to attend many church services, he was truly a great man of faith. He and his family were one of the only ones I ever knew to sit around in the evening and have a nightly devotion. He was also a man of great prayer. He would stop, drop and pray whenever he saw the need and for anyone in need.
His prayers were always simple and in just the same way he used today’s redneck phrase without fail, he would always start his prayers with the same introduction;
“Good Lord, I know you’ re a might busy with all the things you have to do, but If you wouldn't mind takin a minute to hear me I'd be much abliged…” and then he would pray for the need. It didn't matter where he was or who he was with, he was unashamed to pray for God’s will to be done in every situation.
Willy was truly a redneck classic, but was also a great man of faith. His reliance wasn’t in his own will, but was in the One that willed it all.
Today it would do us all some good to learn a lesson from “Good Lord Willin Willy”. Instead of trying to tell God how to run His planet, why not ask God what His plans are for today, and then go and work with Him.
