Yes, I am working on a longer Friday Futures article about the future of missions. That article will probably be posted on Monday or next Friday as I am presently participating in a partnership conference and have not had a chance to fine-tune the article or properly link it. And you want the best, don’t you?
Meanwhile, let’s meditate this Friday on this thought regarding the future: one of the gravest dangers of hindsight is that we can see so clearly the causes of a wildcard. For instance, I saw some articles today about how certain people tried to inform the United States about the vulnerability of the government in Yemen. And of course I also remember well the news stories that came out after 9/11. It seems some of the plane pilots learned to fly at flight school in the US. The instructor recalled how they did not want to learn to land. We all groaned, as if this sort of thing should have been an obvious giveaway. Arabs? Planes? Not wanting to land? Obviously they are going to hijack a 747 and fly it into an American building in an act of terrorism that will redefine the future of America and its relations with all Muslim nations, leading to several wars!
The problem is, it isn’t so obvious at the time. You might have a sense that you are holding puzzle pieces but not be able to put them together. You might not even know the events are pieces of a bigger puzzle at all. A wildcard is an event that is completely out of our frame of reference, without some serious imaginative thinking. And in most cases, our frame of reference points to something entirely different and much more rational. They are simply silly boys who got bored with the lessons, thrill seekers who didn’t want to finish the training.
So let’s not feel too bad when we can’t or don’t accurately predict a wildcard. The point is not to obsess about everything bad that could possibly happen so that we are prepared for anything. The point is to consider some of the ramifications, to stretch our imaginations to think outside the box, and then labor to build in enough flexibility and wildcard-proofing to deal with multiple categories of situations.
I will work hard on the promised Friday futures to post it soon. In the meantime, what are your reflections on wildcards? What are some wildcards you didn’t see coming… And what are some wildcards you could envision in the future that could impact your ministry? How might you cope with them? Share your ideas in the comments! Don’t be shy! Be bold! Speak up!
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