Shaping the Future Today!
September 30, 2010 · 0 Comments
God wants us to recognize the importance of tomorrow by giving us today, each day! He desires that we plan our future because we have to live there. And the way one plans for the future is tied up to how one manages the present. C.S. Lewis rightfully observed that “the present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.”
Wise men of the past warned that one should not worry about tomorrow. They were equally emphatic in their challenges regarding making plans, following guidelines, understanding the times, so as to face intelligently and courageously each new surprise that comes, good or bad, as we embark into the future which is being shaped.
As a modern poet expresses it, “we build a new tomorrow on plans we make today!” Each new day reaches its end, but it also merges into a new tomorrow with all the opportunities it brings.
In the words of Loren B. Mead, “God always calls us to be more than we have been!” We cannot stop the clock, much less can we return to the good ol’ days. The movement which God desires for each of His children is always in a forward direction, with the future clearly in mind!
David Livingstone, in the 19th century, recorded in his journals something I have adopted as a personal motto: “I am prepared to go anywhere, as long as it is forward.”
A commitment to the future is important because it is there and then that one’s goals are realized, one’s projects reach completion, even if inadequately, because of being tinged by human frailties.
Moving towards the future is inescapable, regardless of how difficult the journey. Hopefully you’ve learned how to hold on to what shall last and discard all that is provisional. This is a posture of genuine wisdom which, by its very nature, requires taking risks.
On earth we are confronted with too many temporal realities. We need to hold on to what lasts and gradually leads into the future, there to remain with us beyond time.
