It seems like we are always asking this question. Hope is lost when we don't have the slightest idea of what is coming up next. Think about the things that keep you going; dinner with a friend, the hope of true love, a purpose in what you do at work, a ministry opportunity on the side, planning for the future. The human spirit is a fickle thing. While we are called to live in and enjoy the present, this is difficult to do without a clear view of the future.
Maybe this is what is going on in America today - in 2011. There seems to be little idea of what is going to happen in the future and so it makes it difficult to live in the present. Whether it is on a micro-scale (your and my individual lives) on or a macro-scale (the nation/world we live in), facing an uncertain future makes living in the present less enjoyable.
When we "lose the plot", we have no idea of where to go to next. Our path becomes blocked, it is less evident, it seems aloof, uncertain, unclear, undecided and so we are stuck. We don't know whether to move to the right or to the left, forward or backward and so we just stay where we are. We dream about what could have been, what should have been and trading lives with someone, and sometimes, something else. Have you ever looked at a bird and thought, "I sure wish I were that bird! No worries, no fears, no thought of the future or the past. Just a bird that can fly about taking life one moment at a time."
Psalm 16:11 says, "You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."
Of course, there is Jeremiah 29:11 - 12 - "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.'"
Notice how hope and a future are tied together in Jeremiah 29! It is a difficult thing to do to "wait upon the Lord" and to look to the future at the same time! How can we be content in the moment and yet look to the future for "better" things - whatever those better things are?
Personally, and vulnerably, I look at my life and I thought it would be so much more! After all, there were visions of grandeur in ministry and it seems that I was always on the cusp of greatness only to fall short. Whether my blindness or the blindness of others that have kept me short of doing great things, I find myself hollering out like the Bartimaeus hollering out, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Being blind to our future keeps us from enjoying our present and enjoying those who are in the present moment with us. "Lord, help us receive our sight!"
