What do you see in your future?
This question implies that you are looking forward into your future, not in the past through the rear view mirror. That’s an important distinction.
The rear view mirror often distorts what took place. Regrets and disappointments can loom big crowding out the blessings that were there as well.
It takes intentionality to shift our gaze to the future with a new mindset that beneficial outcomes await us instead of a repeat of past shortcomings. Replacing the coordinates of our mind to think in these terms changes the direction of our journey in profound ways.
What if you really believed the following:
- Your best years are ahead of you. “…forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:13-14).
- Your future will be fruitful. “…I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that you fruit should remain…” (Jn. 15:16).
- Your mountains (i.e. human obstacles) can be moved. “…I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing will be impossible to you” (Matt. 17:20). “What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel (insert your name here!) you will become a plain (i.e. a mole hill!)…” (Zech. 4:7).
- Your life can impact future generations. “We (i.e. you and me) will not conceal them (i.e. God’s laws) from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord…” (Ps. 78:4).
With a few simple (but not easy) mental course corrections, you will find yourself on a hopeful path of influence. You can look up and see the beauty of the world in a different light. Rather than circling in a cul-de-sac, a new road of adventure that God has planned will present itself.
The culture at large blunts this kind of optimism about our later years. We must get our directions from the only trusted source, the Bible, to insure that we don’t cave into the wrong narrative.
I’d be very interested in hearing how you are re-envisioning your future and the outcomes you have experienced.
Hi Bruce. A good article, trying to encourage people (men) that it is better to look forward than backward. If only it was true, but it’s not. For many, the best years are gone, and the future on Earth is bleak. The dreams and hopes we had as young people have been crushed right out of us by this cruel life. The best many of us can hope for is to “white-knuckle” it until God finally releases us to go to our true Home.
Hi Nicholas,
Thanks for sharing so honestly about the finishing well journey. What I am hoping to convey is that our future can be hopeful and not bleak. We certainly have regrets over mistakes or what might have been, but God’s story in our life doesn’t end there. I heard a quote the other day that said, “It takes courage not to be discouraged.” Finishing well for the Lord will take great courage and grit on our part to stand up in the face of trial, griefs and broken dreams. My prayer is that God will give us new dreams and help us let our old expectations drop away. Not easy at all, but it keeps our heart open to the things God still wants to accomplish in our life.
Bruce