“When I dwell with you, I do so in the present – I live in the present. Not the past, although much can be remembered and learned by looking back, but only for a visit, not an extended stay. And for sure, I do not dwell in the future you visualize or imagine. Mack, do you realize that your imagination of the future, which is almost always dictated by fear of some kind, rarely, if ever, pictures me there with you?…..It is your desperate attempt to get some control over something you can’t. It is impossible for you to take power over the future because it isn’t even real, nor will it ever be real. You try and play God, imagining the evil that you fear becoming reality, and then you try and make plans and contingencies to avoid what your fear.”
I’m currently working my way through a book called “The Shack” by William P. Young. The foreword of the book claims the gist of the story to be non-fiction, though with some admitted blurry areas of recollection. However, I believe the book is considered to be a fictional read. Nevertheless, the quote above comes from a conversation that the main character, Mack, has with Jesus. I don’t want to ruin the story for anyone, so I won’t give the context of their conversation, but I do think that this “quote” from Jesus is an interesting take on the human fascination with the future. And it comes at an opportune time for me personally, while still sorting through the issues of one of my earlier blogs.
I got to thinking about any plans for the future that I find myself still clinging to and then compared them with the statement above, “your imagination of future…rarely, if ever, pictures me (Jesus) there with you.” And wouldn’t you know it, that’s a pretty darn accurate statement; a job that I enjoy, a wife, kids, friends, family, and other fun stuff. But if Jesus is my foundation, then why is he never present when I’m constructing my mental house of the future?
Proverbs 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”
It’s no wonder the Bible repeatedly tells us to focus on today and not tomorrow; I have enough trouble maintaining complete focus on God during the present day! Why would I want to look to the future and makes plans, knowing full well that they probably aren’t of God. And then be so foolish as to hang onto them and be disappointed when they don’t pan out. It’s a tired routine and yet a comfortable, known process at the same time.
While learning to apply this one-day-at-a-time principle to my life at large, God’s given my team a practical example. The World Race is not a short-term missions experience. We don’t spend 7 days doing manual labor for a poor village and then pack up and go home. This trip is based around relationships, just as the Christian life is meant to be. It is next to impossible to build relationships, deep, meaningful relationships in one week. But thus far we haven’t had the opportunity that some other teams have to spend significant time with the same group of locals. To date, the longest that we’ve spent with the same group has been two weeks with our very first church in Palenque, Mexico. That was our first two weeks in ministry, and we spent one of the two weeks trying to figure out what in the world we were doing and whether or not our contacts even liked having us there. So suffice to say, we’ve yet to have the opportunity to build any significant relationships. But Cambodia held that promise; our future construction of our time in Cambodia saw us spending our entire time here working with Campus Crusade for Christ, getting to know both the students and staff on more than just a surface level. But that wasn’t God’s plan…
The Crusade staff are on a retreat until the 13th of the month, which will leave us approximately 10 days to spend with them. Until then, our team will work a few hours per day at a nearby orphanage. We won’t get the relationships that the six of us were seeking this month. For some reason God wants us at this orphanage for 5 days, so that’s where we’ll be – living in the present, right where Jesus is.
