We are living history every day… Blink! You’ll read about it in the news and future textbooks. Amazing when you think about it… What you lived in real life as a kid is in History Books today, and you were there! But what you are going through right now will someday be the fodder of future generations attempting to understand the nuances of our actions. And reactions.
Life challenges us to be in the moment, but when I’m in “this” moment, I cannot pay attention to “that” moment. We exist in a vacuum, sort of, so we have limited ability to know everything there is to know about everything else.
Reading headlines solves the problem. Somewhat. You don’t know the rest of the story without digging out what others have to say about it. Then, you wonder if they are telling the whole story.
Can you trust the regurgitators of current events? Not necessarily!
We Are Living History, Don't Blink! – Life challenges us to be in the moment, but when I'm in "this" moment, I cannot pay attention to "that" moment. Share on XBack in the 60s
Born in the ’50s and facing adulthood in the ’70s, it generally means most of my growing years were the ’60s. If we experienced these challenging years, we would at least have some common space to relive even from different spaces. Riots, wars, assassinations, politics, even the Space Race… Have I missed something? You bet! My vacuum existed differently than others. If you had TV, there were only 3 channels. With names like Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, and David Brinkley, we knew the news!
Who said, “And that’s the way it is...?” Walter, of course!
I remember one local newscast starting the late-night news with, “It’s 10 pm. Where are your children?” I suspect that you had to be there, live through it so that you could comprehend the vagaries of the day.
I made a scrapbook, and still have it today, of the JFK assassination and Space Race. With newspaper clippings, I prove I was there!
Think Back A Little Bit Farther
There were world wars, depression, dust bowls, and the Spanish Flu pandemic just before my years. My past built my life on the back of what others had survived. The way I looked forward was subject to their experiences. This is the same for every generation!
Dream The Future
We wish for a better tomorrow, but it often only comes from the experiences of the past, as in yesteryear, yesterday, and today. What I see happening around me in real-time does not portend great hope for success in the future. There’s an ugly feel to just about everything. Fear grips too many, and that produces anger. Emotions run high, and hope runs low.
Will it ever get back to normal? Some say never, others give a smidgen of possibilities, while others point to something new never seen before.
Prophesy is often a “vision” given to someone who can see with their mind or in dreams, yet they seldom comprehend what they envision. John the Revelator describes the start of his vision like this:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place.
And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
(Revelation 1:1-3 NKJV)
If you read the remainder of the book, you can see that he paints a picture as he sees it, mostly without understanding what he saw.
That’s Just Like Us
I’m struggling to see what the future looks like, especially when I see the results of our past and how we are living out the present. It’s somewhat scary. Worrisome. I worry about the future generations as represented by our children living through these times, just as I did back in the ’60s.
Will they make it a better place? Possibly. Can we trust they’ll get it right? Probably, though, we worry just as our grandparents worried about us!
There are ways to move forward.
We must challenge ourselves to make changes for a brighter tomorrow. If you are a doomsday predictor, then you must change your outlook. How? Get involved with the problem today, look for avenues of deliverance, and help the present change.
I’m not sold that we have all the answers to our common predicament, but without investigating options, how will we know?
On A Spiritual Front
According to biblical prophecy, there’s nothing we can do about tomorrow. What God has planned will occur during his timing, even if you pray it doesn’t. There are predictors about when all these things will happen. His disciples ask this very question, and Jesus tells all about the future:
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives,
the disciples came to Him privately, saying,
“Tell us, when will these things be?
And what will be the sign of Your coming,
and of the end of the age?”
(Matthew 24:3 NKJV)
Read the remainder of the Word, and you’ll find his description of signs to watch for.
The Apostle Paul writes, equally, about the future. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) Even the Apostle John (1 John 2:11-27)
If you are worried about all this, you have a right to be. But worry and fear should not make you hide from the problems; rather, it challenges you to face the truth head-on. When David was dealing with those threatening his life, the Bible particularly tells us what he did, and so can you.
“…but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”
1 Samuel 30:6
Come on! There is a better future ahead. Only, you want to live your life now so you can enjoy it then! Encourage (strengthen) yourself! Take ownership!