| –Is that you can’t see it for the present.
In the context of the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, one journalist took the time to look back and see what the pundits said would happen next. No one, but no one, got it right. No one foresaw the rapid collapse of European communism and the demise of the Soviet Union. By 1991 The U.S.S.R. was no more, and no one saw this future with any degree of precision. Instead they got it wrong. The end of communism will be a long time coming. Wrong. If the Warsaw pact goes, so does NATO. Wrong. Germany will not be allowed to re-unite. Wrong. A united Germany will become a nuclear power before the end of the millennium. Wrong. Gorbachev will long continue. Wrong. In terms of foretelling the future, even over the brief time span of ten years, the experts could not get it right. So why not? “The problem with trying to see the future is the present. What we know usually overpowers our ability to see what might be coming. What is is; it has the advantage of tangible existence. This makes the present hard to shake, no matter how smart you are.” (Robert G. Kaiser of the Washington Post service in International Herald Tribune, Nov. 10, 1999.) Makes us think about our message about the future, and our own response. Is the present also a problem to us? Does what we know overpower our ability to see what’s coming? Is the present hard to shake? We may think we’re smart, and have the answers. But the present can fool us too, unless we’re open to the thought that the present is not the dominant factor. Of all people, we cannot let the strength of the definite present overpower the undeniable truth of a God-planned future, with all that such a future means. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV). |
This was a very beautiful article. As human beings, we are so limited as to what we can accurately predict. Even an hour from our present reality can sometimes be difficult to concieve. Only one that God has truly given the priviledge is given a glimpse into what is to come. So, we cannot wholly depend on our own “smartness” and abilities, but understand and accept our limitations as human beings.
This was a very beautiful article. As human beings, we are so limited as to what we can accurately predict. Even an hour from our present reality can sometimes be difficult to concieve. Only one that God has truly given the priviledge is given a glimpse into what is to come. So, we cannot wholly depend on our own “smartness” and abilities, but understand and accept our limitations as human beings.