Thought for Today
Psalm 22:30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord,
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Acts 14:16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways;
1 Corinthians 3:22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future-- all belong to you,
At some time in elementary or junior high school, I was taught that English has 3 basic verb tenses, each of which has a corresponding perfect tense, for a total of 6 verb tenses. Other languages have similar tenses; some languages even have additional tenses, e.g., Greek has an aorist tense.
I have been reminded of this recently as Greta and I have been watching (present perfect) our youngest grandchildren complete their secondary education and look (present) forward toward college.
Yesterday, I referenced the prophet Joel’s verse, Joel 2:28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” Joel makes use of what are known as future progressive verbs, employing the helpers ‘will’ and ‘shall.’
I suspect few of us pay much attention to the details of grammar as we engage in our daily speech. Listening to most conversations, it is obvious that many have trouble with the basic conjugation of almost all verbs. I suspect that the professor who taught me both Greek and Hebrew in seminary would have made the same comment about my proficiency in Biblical languages.
There is a deeper sense than mere verb conjugation in which present, past and future are important for our lives. We tend to focus most of our efforts, energies and resources on what is transpiring around us in the present. In most daily situations, that is paramount to our well-being. The example of crossing a busy street demonstrates that clearly. Were we not to pay attention to the traffic, the traffic lights and our best approximation of the time remaining for the Walk signal, the results might well not be in our best interest.
As is so often the case, however, there are dangers to obsessing with the present at the expense of the past and the future. A good example might be to consider planning a trip. Ignoring the past means you may not have any way of determining your present location. Ignoring the future means you cannot tell where you are headed. You know the obvious specifics of your current location, maybe even the name of the street or city, but you may not know how you got there (car, bus, train, plane) or where you want to go next.
Obviously, there are similar dangers with obsessing with the past or the future. Attempting to utilize your resources to change something that has already occurred is an exercise in futility. You can correct past mistakes, but the mistakes have been made and must be factored into current and future plans. Your life has already come to where it is. The past cannot be changed . . . at least as far as current knowledge of time travel is concerned.
Overly obsessing with the future is equally futile. Doing so means you are not dealing with the problems of the present in such a way as to allow you to ever reach the future. Using the example of crossing an intersection, only focusing on the far side will never get you across the intersection safely. You have to make sure you will not be run over in the present; you have to also make sure you move your feet in the proper direction.
What does all this mean for us as Christians? What does it mean for our children and grandchildren? We need to know the history of our faith. We need to recognize our ancestors-in-the-faith and what they teach us. We also need to have our attention firmly focused on “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We’re not there yet! Unless we also understand where we are, we’ll never get there! We, our children and grandchildren and all of God’s children need to be firmly grounded in our relationship with our Creator now and every moment moving forward. What a joyous privilege we have to be constantly in relationship with our loving Creator God.
Stay safe, be aware of your relationship with God, trust God,
Pastor Ray