The Future

Remember the movie "Back To The Future"? Great movie with a very intriguing title. Millions of girls watched this movie and fell more in love with the actor Michael J. Fox. I'm sure the fame that movie brought to his life would be quite a story. But he could not know the future, as a young man, that a greater story would change his life forever.


I recently read an article where he talked about living with Parkinson's and how everything has changed in his perspective regarding life and love and purpose. Summarizing briefly to the point I want to highlight, he said "living in the moment" puts his days together piece by piece, and what a blessing that change in lifestyle has been.


Most of my life I have spent a lot of my time and energy focusing on what could of been, or what is going to happen. Living in the past and worrying about the future, and complaining about the present. I'm sure I'm not alone in this common way of life. But as a believer I should trust God does not want me to live a common life.


One morning I was out for a walk with my 3 dogs. I often take this time to talk to God about life and stuff- my life and my stuff to be exact. I was in search of answers.


"Questions, questions, so many questions my child,"- I can picture God thinking as I rant on and on. Then as I reached the top of the hill, the college bell chimed 9 times. I stopped and began to meditate on my verse, my mantra in Jeremiah 29; 11.


"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."


As the bell stopped, my questions started again.  I asked God why did he make me wait for the plans of the future and why not just reveal them to me today. I think I really meant, why not just give me the good prosperous plan right now!


 I thought about the word, the" future", that mysterious passing of time. I realized, the future is just a word to me, and that my only reality lies in the present- the moment to moment unfolding of  the day.My part is to move into that future through the present.


 Like the clever movie title "Back to the Future", as I live in every second, I am living in the present, soon to the the past, yet shaping the future. Wow, what a revelation!


You may need to read that again and think about it. God revealed this to me as soon as I stopped my questions. I became keenly aware this is as close to the plans of the future I can go, and that only God can cross through the dimensions of  past, present, and future.


Instead of questioning everything I could not understand or see, I knew my best plan was to trust God and continue to walk into my future close to Him. The enemy would prefer I stay in the dark, and worry so about this passing of time.


Instead, I do my day to day part with the help that God's wise instruction gives me. Here is what God said to the exiles through Jeremiah- in the passages just before the promise of verse 11.


  ⁵ “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.


  ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.


Sounds like pretty good advice for me too. I want what God wants for my life- so I am waiting on the Lord, seeking Him through His word, His creation, and His created.

Trusting God day by day- moment by moment. Step by step.