The Ghosts of a Christmas Yet to Come

I was walking home from the train station one night recently after work, in one of those "sick of my day job/need to start doing what I love" sort of moods, and I started thinking about what it would be like to see into my own future.

Somehow it would be a relief to know for sure where I would end up, what I would end up doing with my life in the context of entirety, and if I would be happy at the end of it all looking back. I sort of felt like Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, grumbling and mumbling and hoping some ghost might appear to me at midnight and answer all of my deepest pondered questions.

Then I started wondering what good all that knowing would actually do for me. If I know where every step I take would lead me before the step is even taken, would I walk the same direction? Would ultimately knowing my own future cause me to sabatoge it? Would I be too cynical? After a while, knowing the future stopped sounding like a relief and started sounding like a buzz kill.

The thing about it is- faith exists because of the unknown. Hope is the optimism God instills inside of us to make us stronger, even through the tough times and especially when we can't possibly see a way out of the quicksand in our lives.

I can't tell you how sitting in a cubicle at a job I hate, dreaming about being on a stage or in a studio doing music full-time, is going to bridge together. I can tell you it sustains my wonder, sustains my drive, and continually challenges me to take risks and find opportunities to bridge the present gap. I can't tell you how sitting at my computer right now, writing to the 11 people who currently follow this blog, is going to open doors for me to write a #1 best selling book on faith that will be read by millions of people around the world. But I will tell you that I'll keep writing these blogs until my fingers fall off, trusting God that there is hope it can happen.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

If God had said "Just ask me whatever you want to know and I'll just go ahead and show everything to you ahead of time", would we really be better for it? It is the very essence of believing in what we cannot see that gives our lives purpose, that gives us hope.

One of the verses I cling to every time I morph into Ebenezer Scrooge is found in Luke 12:27-31- "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well."

Today, may each of be grateful for the conditions of our now so that when our then comes, we will be more than ready. Amen!