Care for Creation as Evangelization and WorshipExemplo

Day Three: During My Lifetime

How far into the future do we look when we take an action or make a decision? 

People usually think of themselves and of their own lifetime. Perhaps not even their own lifetime. Perhaps just this year, or even just today. Carpe diem. 

But what about the future? What about our children, and our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren…? 

There has arguably never been a better time to be alive. In the West, we have an abundance of food and drink, technology that far surpasses the sci-fi imagination of a hundred years ago, easy ways to travel the world and communicate with people across the world, and enough free time and money that we can have a whole host of hobbies and things to fill our time and houses.

But what is the cost of all of this? 

It can be tiring to hear the predictions of scientists about the future, or even to hear reports about what’s happening around the world today about how people and the planet are suffering. 

Perhaps a better question to ask is: am I happy? And how does my pursuit for happiness affect other people and the planet? 

As Christians, we are given the task to love: to love God, and to love our neighbour (Mark 12:30-31). It is these two things that make us truly happy. 

Hezekiah’s reaction to Isaiah’s message is a human one: wouldn’t we all be glad to hear that we will experience peace and security, after all! But is it a just response? Should we think it is good that other people will suffer? Should Hezekiah have reacted differently? 

Hezekiah was fortunate as there was peace and security in his lifetime. This may not be the case for us – unfortunately we don’t have a prophet to tell us one way or the other. If we think about how much things have changed over the past fifty years, we can hardly predict how things will look at the end of our own lifetime, let alone in future generations. And based on 2020, we can hardly even predict how things will look from year to year.

We may trust that this is all a part of God’s plan, but we must always remember that God gave us free will. It is important that we exercise our free will in ways that serves more than just our own pleasure, comfort and security. 

Questions for Discussion

1. How much attention should we pay to warnings about the future? 

2. How do my actions affect the environment? And other human life? 

3. How much control do we have about what happens in the future?