Over the past few weeks we have discussed the idea of forecasting the future (not predicting it, mind!), our inability to do so accurately in the wake of wildcards, and how vast macrotrends impact our forecasts. We constantly grapple with a few ideas:
- We are told not to fixate overly much on the future. For those interested in the Rapture, Jesus said no one could know the day or the hour. For those thinking about the future, Jesus said not to worry about what tomorrow might bring.
- We are told that those who are prepared are wise. The fame of the men of Issachar was that they understood the times and knew what Israel should do. Jesus tells the parable of the Ten Wise Virgins who were ready when the bridegroom came.
Forecasts of the future are affected by at least four things:
- Ongoing global realities are just part of life. Babies are born, people die, people get married and relationships break apart, we put men and women in power and authority, disagreements are had and wars are started, diseases break out. These and many other things just happen as a result of what humanity presently is, and they won’t generally be stopped by us.
- Random events happen, too. Of course there’s a theological argument about what’s random and what’s not, and whether God is in charge of it all. But my view is that God has designed a certain amount of randomness in the world. C. S. Lewis said (in Screwtape Letters, #29) God designed a world that is dangerous because “in such a world moral issues really come to the point.” That makes sense to me, but the bottom line is that, insofar as I see, most random events do not really lead to good futures (although our responses to them might).
- Personal sin and systemic sin are both tearing our world apart. The hater of our souls is quite active in the world. But more than that, our personal choices are often selfish, sinful, and broken. Worse, these choices can interlock with others into major systems and patterns of sin—addictions, organized criminal activity, etc. None of this leads anywhere good. This trend is custom designed for destruction.
- The Holy Spirit through us is active in the world, too. Through sacrifice, redemption, charity, and community, the Holy Spirit is setting out to redeem a world gone mad, and to bring a future aimed for death and destruction back to life.
The challenge for us is not to predict the future with anything like a reasonable amount of accuracy—because we can’t. We are rushed along by life, buffeted by the “winds of fortune and chance.” Our generation only has so long, and we waste a lot of it in sin. The devouring wolves strive to harry us like sheep toward the slaughter. We can’t predict with specificity the bad things that are going to happen, but that bad things will happen is a 100% certainty. Read the evening news and you will feel powerless.
Worry and fear are a tool of the enemy to get our eyes off of God and his plans for our future: if we fear enough, we avoid any potential danger. We isolate ourselves from badness, we insure ourselves against it. We “don’t smoke and don’t chew and don’t run with those who do”—although Jesus hung out with sinners, we don’t hang out with “those kinds of people” because “bad things might happen.”
Bad things are often the stage on which redemption happens. We can’t find the heroic apart from the struggle, the pain, the sacrifice, the opposition, and the most heroic is always found in the midst of the greatest darkness, evil, strength and sacrifice. This is the way God has designed us, and designed our world (see Joseph, Esther, Paul, Augustine, C. S. Lewis). In every moment of pain and destruction and loss, there is an opportunity for the Holy Spirit through us to bring about something good that will last for eternity: a new habit, a destructive habit abandoned, a reconciliation, a life saved, a choice that makes an eternal difference for a soul.
God calls us not to worry about the unpredictable, bad events that inevitably happen, but rather to be prepared for the good things He will do. Some times this good happens in the midst of great storms, and other times in the midst of sunny summer days. Seek a vantage point that lets you see—not the bad things coming, but also what kind of change is needed to bring “where we are headed now” in line with “where God would like us to be.”
A great illustration of this is in a movie my wife and I recently saw for the second time, called “Facing the Giants.” This is one of those lovely feel-good Christian-based movies, which I sometimes don’t care for—but in this case was really pretty good. Essentially it’s the David-and-Goliath parable retold in the context of an underdog school’s football team. In the middle of the movie, a prophetic character tells the story of two farmers: one prayed for rain, the other not only prayed for rain but went out and prepared his fields for it.
We have to avoid worry and fear and focus on preparing the ground for rain. Consider the sorts of ways the Holy Spirit can use us to bring in new actions, new processes, and new scalable ways of acting together which will first mitigate the bad events, second heal the damage, and third put us on the path toward a future that is good. Think about the situation God most desires and is already working toward, and take the actions necessary to prepare for and encourage that future.
“What needs to happen?” is the question to ask. In your particular situation, if God were to “do his part”—if he were to bring rain—is your field, your ministry, prepared to receive it?
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