1.
RE-IMAGINING
THE FUTURE
Proverbs 29: 18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he”.
I recall that I was quite young, maybe in kindergarten or Year 1 at school, when my best mate and I conspired to pull a prank on one of our class mates, a girl.
On our way home from school we walked over a bridge where a small creek ran beneath the road. Little did I realise that bridge would prove to be the bridge, indeed the door into my future.
My mate and I decided that this bridge would be the perfect location for our prank. So, on the fateful day we followed our class mate home and as she crossed the bridge one of us grabbed her whilst the other one grabbed her school bag and flung it over the bridge and into the creek below.
For a just anyone to have carried out this act was one thing, but for the son of the local Baptist Minister to bring such shame upon family and church, it was unthinkable.
As it would turn out, the ramifications of that childish act were to be far reaching for me. The discipline that flowed from my parents and the school in the days that followed planted a seed in me that grew over time into a deeply rooted fear of failure.
This would become the driving force of my life through school, university, work, marriage and fatherhood. Indeed, it would play a bigger role than I would ever want to admit in my relationship with God.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, this was my first encounter with the spirit of religion!!!!
It would be decades later that Christians actually started to use this terminology and we would come to learn that this spirit’s stock in trade is to instil a level of fear that will ensure you keep to the script of your chosen religion.
Little did I realise that, years later, when I was pastoring a Baptist Church in a small country town I would find myself in a similar situation with my daughter when she acted in a way that I thought shamed me publicly.
We had travelled to a larger centre, about an hour away, to do some shopping. When it came time to get in the car to return home my daughter flatly refused (she was about the same age I was when the bridge incident occurred). My reaction was to become indignant and angry with her and drive off leaving her at the kerb. I drove all the way around a very large block before returning to where she was. Not surprisingly she was absolutely distraught and did not hesitate to jump in the car as quick as she could.
I have lost count of the number of times I have asked for forgiveness from my daughter, from my wife and from the Lord for that act. It would be many more years before I could forgive myself for allowing my perceived fear of failure develop into a weapon of trauma which I used to “punish” my precious daughter.
I eventually realised that I was raising my children under a spirit of fear, a spirit of religion and not in a spirit of self-less love.
So, I guess you are now asking the question: ‘What in the world do these stories have to do with vision?’
The answer is: they actually have a great deal to do with vision and it has taken me most of my life to realise that. You see, when I use the expression “fear of failure” I am actually saying ‘fear of the future’. As a little boy with his whole future in front of him, I could see only my fear of failing my parents, my fear of failing my school, the fear of failing the church, the fear of failing at university, the fear of failing in my career, the fear of my marriage failing, the fear of failing as a father and ultimately the fear of failing God!!!
This scenario certainly redefines the question: ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ If I was absolutely honest now my answer would be ‘anything other than a failure’
Now that I am much, much, much older, I realise that I am not at all alone in my fear of failure, or in my fear of the future.
Fear of the future is actually what makes our society tick. Over recent years we have seen this demonstrated with the world economy being rocked by severe downturns in the stock markets of various countries. But have you ever stopped to consider what triggered these downturns? An analyst’s fear of the future!!!
Let me press this point a little further and ask you what is behind almost 100% of the advertising you are exposed to? If we are totally honest our answer would be: fear of the future. Advertisers consistently try to allay our fear of the future by demonstrating for us what our future will look like if we buy that new house, car, boat, life insurance, TV, laptop, smart phone and so the list goes on and on and on and on and on until it reaches my absolute favourite: funeral insurance.
Even beyond death itself we are told that we can control our fear of the future and our loved ones fear of the future by investing in funeral insurance!!
So, this is the bottom line: Is fear of the future what actually makes your world go around?
For so much of my life the answer to this question has been a resounding YES!!!
The good news is that, in recent years, I have found another ‘bridge’, indeed another door that has enabled me to cross over from a life of fear of failure, a life of fearing the future, into a life full of divine purpose.
I would never have discovered this bridge if it had not been for Skip Moen’s teaching on Proverbs 29:18 and in particular, what he shared regarding the meaning of the word ‘vision’ from a Hebrew perspective.
In Hebrew this word for vision is ‘aharit’ and it literally means “afterward, backwards or after part.”
The picture that best explains this unusual meaning is that of a person rowing a boat. They are rowing into their future but all they can see is where they have been. In fact, any attempt on their part to turn around and “see their future” will prove devastating to their progress into the future.
Whereas a western mindset may be driven by fear of failure/ fear of the future, the Hebrew mindset is focused on the past and, more specifically the faithfulness of God in the past.
Herein lay the key to some of the so called boring bits in Scripture. Those long genealogies we come across are actually an illustration of the word ‘aharit’. The writer of those genealogies is sitting in the row boat looking back through all the generations- the good, the bad and the ugly- and they are seeing there a common thread running through them all: the faithfulness of God!!
Consequently, they can be confident that their future is secured, not because they can see the future or control the future they are rowing into but because they have seen the faithfulness of God in the past. Regardless of what their future may look like, one thing remains constant in their thinking: the faithfulness of God.
The more I pondered the pictures connected with life in the row boat the more clearly I saw that it was, in fact, a row boat with a crew of 8. This has great significance because in Scripture the number 8 represents new beginnings!!!!
So, will you join me in the row boat; re-imagining the vision for your life, seeing a new beginning for yourself? Will you take your place in the row boat, being assured that whether your future is good, bad or ugly, one thing will remain constant: the faithfulness of God? Will you join me in embracing the liberating truth that the little boy (or girl) in each of us can cross the next bridge or challenge in our lives knowing through Gods past faithfulness that our future has been secured?
I pray that you will.
Proverbs 29: 18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he”.
I recall that I was quite young, maybe in kindergarten or Year 1 at school, when my best mate and I conspired to pull a prank on one of our class mates, a girl.
On our way home from school we walked over a bridge where a small creek ran beneath the road. Little did I realise that bridge would prove to be the bridge, indeed the door into my future.
My mate and I decided that this bridge would be the perfect location for our prank. So, on the fateful day we followed our class mate home and as she crossed the bridge one of us grabbed her whilst the other one grabbed her school bag and flung it over the bridge and into the creek below.
For a just anyone to have carried out this act was one thing, but for the son of the local Baptist Minister to bring such shame upon family and church, it was unthinkable.
As it would turn out, the ramifications of that childish act were to be far reaching for me. The discipline that flowed from my parents and the school in the days that followed planted a seed in me that grew over time into a deeply rooted fear of failure.
This would become the driving force of my life through school, university, work, marriage and fatherhood. Indeed, it would play a bigger role than I would ever want to admit in my relationship with God.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, this was my first encounter with the spirit of religion!!!!
It would be decades later that Christians actually started to use this terminology and we would come to learn that this spirit’s stock in trade is to instil a level of fear that will ensure you keep to the script of your chosen religion.
Little did I realise that, years later, when I was pastoring a Baptist Church in a small country town I would find myself in a similar situation with my daughter when she acted in a way that I thought shamed me publicly.
We had travelled to a larger centre, about an hour away, to do some shopping. When it came time to get in the car to return home my daughter flatly refused (she was about the same age I was when the bridge incident occurred). My reaction was to become indignant and angry with her and drive off leaving her at the kerb. I drove all the way around a very large block before returning to where she was. Not surprisingly she was absolutely distraught and did not hesitate to jump in the car as quick as she could.
I have lost count of the number of times I have asked for forgiveness from my daughter, from my wife and from the Lord for that act. It would be many more years before I could forgive myself for allowing my perceived fear of failure develop into a weapon of trauma which I used to “punish” my precious daughter.
I eventually realised that I was raising my children under a spirit of fear, a spirit of religion and not in a spirit of self-less love.
So, I guess you are now asking the question: ‘What in the world do these stories have to do with vision?’
The answer is: they actually have a great deal to do with vision and it has taken me most of my life to realise that. You see, when I use the expression “fear of failure” I am actually saying ‘fear of the future’. As a little boy with his whole future in front of him, I could see only my fear of failing my parents, my fear of failing my school, the fear of failing the church, the fear of failing at university, the fear of failing in my career, the fear of my marriage failing, the fear of failing as a father and ultimately the fear of failing God!!!
This scenario certainly redefines the question: ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ If I was absolutely honest now my answer would be ‘anything other than a failure’
Now that I am much, much, much older, I realise that I am not at all alone in my fear of failure, or in my fear of the future.
Fear of the future is actually what makes our society tick. Over recent years we have seen this demonstrated with the world economy being rocked by severe downturns in the stock markets of various countries. But have you ever stopped to consider what triggered these downturns? An analyst’s fear of the future!!!
Let me press this point a little further and ask you what is behind almost 100% of the advertising you are exposed to? If we are totally honest our answer would be: fear of the future. Advertisers consistently try to allay our fear of the future by demonstrating for us what our future will look like if we buy that new house, car, boat, life insurance, TV, laptop, smart phone and so the list goes on and on and on and on and on until it reaches my absolute favourite: funeral insurance.
Even beyond death itself we are told that we can control our fear of the future and our loved ones fear of the future by investing in funeral insurance!!
So, this is the bottom line: Is fear of the future what actually makes your world go around?
For so much of my life the answer to this question has been a resounding YES!!!
The good news is that, in recent years, I have found another ‘bridge’, indeed another door that has enabled me to cross over from a life of fear of failure, a life of fearing the future, into a life full of divine purpose.
I would never have discovered this bridge if it had not been for Skip Moen’s teaching on Proverbs 29:18 and in particular, what he shared regarding the meaning of the word ‘vision’ from a Hebrew perspective.
In Hebrew this word for vision is ‘aharit’ and it literally means “afterward, backwards or after part.”
The picture that best explains this unusual meaning is that of a person rowing a boat. They are rowing into their future but all they can see is where they have been. In fact, any attempt on their part to turn around and “see their future” will prove devastating to their progress into the future.
Whereas a western mindset may be driven by fear of failure/ fear of the future, the Hebrew mindset is focused on the past and, more specifically the faithfulness of God in the past.
Herein lay the key to some of the so called boring bits in Scripture. Those long genealogies we come across are actually an illustration of the word ‘aharit’. The writer of those genealogies is sitting in the row boat looking back through all the generations- the good, the bad and the ugly- and they are seeing there a common thread running through them all: the faithfulness of God!!
Consequently, they can be confident that their future is secured, not because they can see the future or control the future they are rowing into but because they have seen the faithfulness of God in the past. Regardless of what their future may look like, one thing remains constant in their thinking: the faithfulness of God.
The more I pondered the pictures connected with life in the row boat the more clearly I saw that it was, in fact, a row boat with a crew of 8. This has great significance because in Scripture the number 8 represents new beginnings!!!!
So, will you join me in the row boat; re-imagining the vision for your life, seeing a new beginning for yourself? Will you take your place in the row boat, being assured that whether your future is good, bad or ugly, one thing will remain constant: the faithfulness of God? Will you join me in embracing the liberating truth that the little boy (or girl) in each of us can cross the next bridge or challenge in our lives knowing through Gods past faithfulness that our future has been secured?
I pray that you will.
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