Flash Forward

There's a new show I've gotten sucked into on ABC called Flash Forward. The premise is that one day a mysterious event causes everyone on the planet to simultaneously lose consciousness for 137 seconds, during which people see what appear to be visions of their lives approximately six months in the future - a global “flash-forward." Some people respond to their glimpse of the future out of fear. They are afraid the visions will actually come true and their lives will be dramatically and even negatively altered forever. Others are filled with confidence as they look forward to the exciting possibilities the future apparently has in store. Either way, everyone starts to make decisions about their lives based on what they believe is yet to come. They act in ways they might not normally (both good and bad), because of the information they have received. The whole world in one sense is united because of this shared, common experience as they wait to see what the future will reveal and how it will continue to change everyone and everything.

Would you want to see a vision of your future? How do you think you might respond? Do you think the information would change the way you live?

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In a way as Christians, we live in the context of our own "Flash Forward." God has given us a glimpse into the future. And it is a future that boldly proclaims God's victory over Satan, sin, evil, and death...a future of restored relationship between God and his people...a future where the kingdom of God is fully established on earth as it is in heaven. The crazy thing is that knowing that "insider" information doesn't seem to change our lives. For whatever reason we don't believe the "vision" is true. Somewhere in our head we know what the future holds, but we get too easily caught up in ourselves to allow the outcome to shape the way we live into the future. In talking about the book of Revelation and the idea of the "end times," Randy Harris sums it up this way: In the end "God wins. Choose wisely. Don't be stupid!" I think that's about as simple as it gets. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the simplicity.

Do we live in ways that point people forward to a future of God's reigning presence on earth? If not, we better be careful, because anything else might lead us to look back on the emptiness of our lives and see that it was all gone in a flash!

--Mike