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The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be

Rev. Doug Pratt — January 3, 2010
 

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Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? … ³⁷No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
      ³⁸And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. ³⁹Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (from Romans 8, New Living Translation)

Introduction
Yogi Berra, Hall of Fame ballplayer, rarely made an error on the field. But off the field he committed multiple offenses against the English language—often unintended but hilarious. One of his well-known quotes to sportswriters was: “The future ain’t what it used to be.” On the surface Yogi’s words are, of course, absurd—because the future actually has never existed, and therefore never “used to be” anything. And, technically, the future will never come. It always remains elusively out there ahead of us.

The old trick of the farmer to motivate his plow horse comes to mind. The farmer attached a long stick to the horse’s harness, stretched in front of the large but not-too-bright beast, and dangled a juicy apple or carrot on the end of it. The more the horse moved towards its desired prize, the more the food moved further ahead—thus keeping the horse relentlessly pulling the plow behind it in a futile attempt to get its treat. The future is that fruit dangling always before us.

Expectations of the Future are Often Wrong
But we can also see some ironic truth in Yogi’s comment about the future being different than it used to be, because we form expectations and assumptions about what tomorrow will bring that often are disrupted by reality. Many of us can remember confident predictions and visions about what life in the 21st century would be like—from the Buck Rogers science fiction fantasies of the depression era, to Walt Disney’s futuristic concepts in the Tomorrowland section of the Magic Kingdom, to The Jetsons television cartoons. Not all of the visions of what 2010 might be like were exactly accurate. And we’ve seen a fair number of confident economic predictions that ran into a wall of reality as well; not that long ago, people actually believed you could never lose money in real estate or in corporate bonds.

We all know of people whose personal plans ran into unexpected roadblocks: expecting a smooth career path, or a happy marriage and family life, or a blissful retirement, they have crashed into problems too big to solve. For some of us, that’s been a very personal reality: what we thought would come to us in the years ahead has turned out very differently.

It was almost seven years ago (February 1, 2003, to be exact). It was a beautiful Florida morning. A large group of spectators waited patiently in the grandstands overlooking the landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center. In the crowd were the family members of the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. They expected any moment to hear the sonic boom and see the shuttle gliding to touchdown. But it never came.

Evelyn Husband, the wife of Shuttle Commander Rick Husband, tells about how her life was redirected so unexpectedly that day. After a seemingly routine and flawless flight into space, a broken heat tile on the left wing of the plane allowed friction and catastrophic heat during re-entry to melt that wing off the fuselage, and somewhere high over Texas the vehicle disintegrated—killing all seven astronauts.

Evelyn has written a book about her experience called High Calling. It tells about the life of her husband, and about how she and her two children have moved forward since the accident on a very different path than the one they had expected. For Evelyn Husband, the future is very different than what it used to be. Some of us have had that kind of disruption as well.

Confident Predictions for 2010
As we stand on the launching pad of 2010, less than three days old, what can we predict with confidence about the next year? I think there are three truths that are reliable.

Truth #1: Some of us will have no essential changes in our lives this year, while others will have a tumultuous year of change. It’s impossible to know which of the two categories you or I will be in. Our natural tendency is to plan for things we can foresee and expect, and that’s the best we can do from our human wisdom. But whenever we get to feeling too proud and self-confident and too sure of our own ability to be “in control,” we need the reminder of this truth: that all of human life is uncertain.

Truth #2: All of us will face some challenges, temptations and opportunities in the coming year. Even if we are physically healthy, financially successful and secure, and all our loved ones are likewise, we will still face on a daily basis the challenges and hassles that are part of life this side of paradise. We will all have temptations that come to us—because there are enemies of our souls who love to trip us up and drag us down. The temptations you are most vulnerable to may be different than the ones that touch my weak spots, but we all have chinks in our armor. We all need to be on guard, prepared to fight vigilantly. And we also will all face opportunities that come our way—opportunities to love, to serve, to give, and to grow. The year of 2010 will prove to be a spiritually rich, rewarding and blessed year to the extent that we say “yes” to those opportunities the Lord brings our way.

Truth #3: God will be with us no matter what happens this year. That is the unmistakable promise of our text from Romans 8: “nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God.” Evelyn Husband comments in her book, “Although I am lonely for Rick, and will be for the rest of my life, I am never alone: I will never be alone. God is always with me.” Our Lord never forces Himself upon us. Though He is always near, as close as our breath, reaching out towards us, He will not coerce us to love Him and to follow the ways that please Him. Real love can’t be forced. But all we need to do is turn to Him and draw upon His love and strength.

In the 1930’s a terrible drought struck the central plains—years of inadequate rainfall. Many of the wells of farmers across Oklahoma finally ran dry. Men and women would go to their hand pumps to draw up life-sustaining water for their families and their crops, but there was nothing there. The pumps were unable to draw any moisture from the depleted aquifers. That terrible “dust bowl” thus sent many fleeing to other regions. In this world it is possible for reservoirs and aquifers, lakes and cisterns to run dry for a time. But the well of God’s love, Romans 8 tells us, is inexhaustible, unquenchable, and constant. The pump is never dry. If we grab it by prayer, His waters will flow into us to sustain us.

Coming to the Lord’s Table
And that’s what the experience of Holy Communion can be like for us. We start the new year together by coming to the Lord’s table, so that He might fill us again from His supply that never runs dry.

If we were to step into the mythical time machine and punch in the setting for 362 days from now—December 31, 2010—and if, by magic, that machine were actually to work and deliver us to our destination, what might await us?

• Some of us will be stronger and healthier; others will be weaker and sicker.
• Some of us will be richer, others about the same, and some may be poorer.
• Some of our families will be larger (by birth or marriage), others the same, and some will be smaller (by death or divorce).

Choices we make, people we interact with, and events and circumstances we can’t control will all impact what this year brings. But all of us will be one year older, one year closer to the finish line of our earthly race, and one year nearer to God’s eternity.

In her book, High Calling—the story of one woman’s journey into and through a personal and national tragedy—Evelyn Husband included the following anonymous quote:

I stood at the door of the new year and said, “Give me a light that I might see my way safely into the unknown.” But a voice came to me and said, “Instead, step into the darkness and take the hand of God—for it will be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

May we, too, step boldly into the new year, hand in hand with our loving and eternal heavenly Father.