Future thoughts

I have been reflecting lately on how much our thoughts of the future impact on current events. The weekend can be either a great chance to rest and unwind or a frustrating waste of time depending on whether we look forward to a busy Monday or a Monday spent catching up on deadlines missed. Many a confusing ordeal has been turned into an adventure by thinking about the story telling potential to be had later. Much of the study at university is judged as good or bad by students based on assumptions of what will be useful in the workforce. How very different does a month without work feel to the holidaymaker and the unemployed?

For me I have seen this phenomenon in the way my thoughts on this time of ministry in India have ebbed and flowed due to uncertainty about the future. As dreams and plans come in and out of the picture so what I do each day takes on more or less significance. It often all depends on how I think what I'm doing will or won't help get to that next thing or will help once I'm there. As plans fall apart or change the criteria by which things are judged changes with it and unfortunately so too does my experience of events.

As Christians we have a picture of the future into eternity. How great would it be to truly experience everyday events in the perspective of that future and judge by that criteria? Often we are able to look back and say "God was using that time" or "that was valuable in God's eyes" but I know I am regularly more influenced at the emotional level by how things fit into my short term future plans than eternity. Over the last month I think God has been giving me prayers to pray, both for myself and others. This is one of them:

That I may so trust God's future that I don't just look forward to it but experience the present in the light of it.