Prepare for the future

The question of ‘how to prepare for the future’ can be understood in two different senses. Firstly, future is something that we can make it happened. For instance, you are not sure whether you will have a chance to travel in the near future, but you can work it out by saving up money, joining different schemes and others. In other word, future is unknown but dependent upon the present. Secondly, future is a kind of promise that is already there, but not yet. We cannot make it happened, but only wait for its coming. Preparation for the future thus means not to lose the vision of and the faith in the coming future. The second sense of understanding is what the Scripture is concerned about the preparation for the future (Heb 11:1-3, 8-16). It is the future dependent upon God’s word, not the result of the logical calculation and predication (Heb 11:3) and human effort. Some people like Sarah are so lucky that they have experienced the realization of God’s word in their lives, but many people are not (Heb 11:13). Despite this, this does not make God’s word disgraceful, because God would not betray himself. I would say that most of us are the unlucky one, and therefore, we need to be strengthened in order not to be discouraged by the unfulfilled reality.

God’s future reminds us that we are the people on a way. The Scripture describes us as pilgrims and visitors (Heb 11:13). On a way simply means moving. People on a way are the people that are not settled down. However, moving does not mean that we are getting closer to the promise, but it reminds us that God’s promise is not restricted to this world. In Abraham’s experience, moving is something very physical, for he has to leave for an unknown place. Does it mean that moving from a government housing to a private flat, from a small private flat to a big house, changing a job from a job, working from place to place are the expressions of moving? It may be, but on a way is fundamentally about detachment. There is nothing wrong to be settled, but when settled down makes us deeply attached to something, God’s promise becomes nothing other than identified as having a good job, a prospect future and a good living environment. On a way reminds us that even we have lost what we have had, we would not be frustrated desperately, for we are people on a way.

My interpretation of Christians on a way perhaps does not make sense for those who are old and those who are exhausted and need to be settled down. Both physically and mentally, they do not want to be on a way. Therefore, I consider the importance of patience for the preparation for the future. There is no faith without patience and no patience without faith. In the present world, we have gradually lost the virtue of patience, for it is speed that matters. It is not only found in internet, but also in our eating culture. Customers are given limited time to have their meals. On the other hand, patience is negatively considered as passive. This is why some of the Post-80 put no trust on the table negotiation for democracy, and they prefer to a more radical approach. Patience is not equivalent to slow, but rather patience is to let thing happen in its time. Patience is not about doing nothing, but not to control. Patience does not exclude radicalness, but it refuses to employ violence to achieve goal. A patient has to be patience for his sickness. It takes time to heal. Even it does not heal finally, patience still makes him calm, for patience is not to control. Likewise we would like our children more mature and more Christlike, but we have to be patience with their growth. It sometimes takes years to be mature, but patience means not giving in. Patience lightens hope even though it is dark.

Nevertheless, being patience is not because we are powerlessness, but because we see beyond the present and the visible (Heb 11:3). This is nothing about prophecy, but is about having faith in God. Seeing beyond is both a vision and a way of life. Sometimes, we are too occupied by what we have seen and fail to see beyond. For instance, we give more weight to the difficulties but not the possibility, the present but not the future. As a result, we are inclined to follow the normal path more than to live differently. We fail to think and try something new. Seeing beyond is not about creativity, but is refusal to be framed. It is the promise of God that brings us not to be conformed. Seeing beyond requires us to be humbly and honest.
Christians on a way need the virtue of patience and the discernment of seeing beyond in order to prepare for the future. We can plan our future, but we do not create the future, for the future is from God, and the future is coming to the present. We need patience to wait for it, and the discernment of seeing beyond to hope for it. We should have faith in it and welcome it.