Thursday, October 22, 2015

The Future is Here

October 21, 2015

Well, the future has arrived, and it's not quite what was imagined back in 1985 when Marty McFly and Doc Brown took off in his flux-capacitor powered DeLorean. True enough, life often seems seedier than it did back then, but we don't have hoverboards or self-tying gym shoes. It just goes to show how little stock we should put in the prognostications of self-proclaimed experts who believe they have everything figured out. Back in 1985, the experts told us that the planet was cooling, and if we didn't do something about our use of fossil fuels, we could be facing another ice age. Then it was global warming, and now climate change, which covers everything. It's supposedly "settled science," according to our president, who doesn't seem to understand that science is never settled. Just ask Copernicus and Galileo. And follow the money.

We shouldn't be surprised, nor should we be alarmed. The world is filled with people who will do their best to manipulate information so as to control the thinking and lives of others. It's called propaganda, and it's everywhere. Years ago, a Russian said that the only difference between Russians and Americans is that they know the papers lie to them. Today, it's all about statistics. Get the right ones, and convince enough people to believe them, and you can call the shots. We too often, to our own detriment, forget the wisdom of Mark Twain who noted that "their are lies, damned lies, and statistics."

So while the future hasn't turned out as expected in 1985, today I mowed the lawn, took off the mower deck for winter, hooked up the loader, and split a pile of wood for my son. After dinner, I practiced my bass, and am now ready for bed. I've not concerned myself with the Banghazi hearings nor the Middle East, other than to pray for the Christians who are being persecuted. Life...real life, is for most of us, not the heady stuff of politics, but the daily small decisions to work, serve, and love. Of course, we choose also to sin; we fall short, and find ourselves in need of grace and forgiveness. Fortunately, there is plenty of that available, if we know where to look, and are willing to actually make the effort to avail ourselves of it. Tonight I am grateful that my future is in the hands of God instead of human prognosticators. He actually knows it, so it is secure. And if the Gospel be true as I believe it to be, that future is also good.

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