Seeing the Future

If I could only see the future! We just finished a prolonged season of political commentators, reading the tea leaves of the political polls and giving us a daily forecast of the political weather. We’ve heard a lot the last few months about ‘La Nina’ and the strong winter we are going to have. After the record high temperatures this week, one news anchor reported that they had gone back to 1949-50, the previous record for high temperature in November, to find out what had happened in the winter of 1950. Seattle had 51”of snow that winter – then she said: I’m not forecasting but …

It will be only a few short weeks until we hear all of the forecasters telling us what 2011 will be like in the area of finances, politics, weather, sports and even the relationship of the ‘stars.’ These predictions will be online, in the tabloids, on TV, radio and in most newspapers. Some will start out … “Nostradamus predicts…”

How much of the future do we really see? As followers of Jesus, the One who knows the future, we really see very little. Nicki Gumble, the teacher for the ALPHA series, uses an illustration of the headlights on a vehicle for how far we really see into the future. Just as a car’s headlights only light a minimal amount of the road ahead, God usually only shows people a minimal amount of the road ahead. We can’t see around the corner. We can’t see over the hill. We can’t see what is off the side of the road. We see only that short distance ahead.

Here are some thoughts by Eugene Peterson, author of the Message Bible, regarding ‘seeing the future:’
•When we follow Jesus, it means that we don’t know exactly what it means, at least in detail. We follow him, letting him pick the roads, set the timetables, tell us what we need to know but only when we need to know it.

•When Jesus says “Follow me” and we follow, we don’t know where we will go next or what we will do next.

•No matter how much we know, we don’t know enough to know what Jesus is going to do next.

•Following Jesus doesn’t get us where we want to go. It gets us to where Jesus goes…

Following Jesus requires continually listening for His direction, trusting that He knows best, remembering that He will not forsake us and then walking in the direction that we hear His voice calling us.

Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself.

Jesus, help us to hear you more clearly and follow you more thoroughly. Amen.