The Future Happens

Tomorrow I leave.  I haven’t seen my family in almost two weeks, but tomorrow I head down to see them and then from there on to Walt Disney World for an awesome vacation.  A vacation that I have been looking forward to since this time last year.  I can actually remember the moment when I realized that our departure was exactly one year away.

And in that year I’ve planned and re-planned.  I’ve dreamed and strategized.  I’ve made reservations and I’ve paid for things.  But most of all, in that year I have waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And in the last few days, as the reality of what I’ve been waiting for draws near, a phrase that sounds so obvious and yet has been so helpful to me over the past year in many areas of life has become increasingly clear.

“The future happens.”

This means that in those times that we are waiting, we aren’t waiting for nothing.  We are waiting for something.  And that time will come, someday.  We don’t always know when, but God is faithful.  But in the meantime, it’s important to live not for the moment, but with the realization that the future does happen.

 

I want my students to understand this. 

I want them to understand this in terms of sexual purity, because the future will happen and these sexual temptations will become a non-issue if they enter into a Godly marriage, but they have to live now as if the future happens for those things to work our God’s way. 

I want them to understand this in terms of self-worth, because the future will happen and someday no one will care how much they spent on their shoes or how good they were at sports or how many A’s they got.  All that will matter is how they used their school-age years for Christ. 

I want them to understand this in terms of their relationship with their parents, because the future will happen and they will graduate from High School and they may never see these friends whose opinion matters so much now, but their parents will always love them. 

I want them to understand this in terms of their relationship with God, because the future will happen and they will one day stand before His throne, and when they look back on their lives all that will matter was if they lived as if the future would happen.