You Have a Future
I am thinking about writing a book. Based on what I’ve seen on the shelves I have all the qualifications.
My father died when I was young. I have survived serious cancer, emergency surgery in a foreign land, a serious heart and a sometimes fatal lung condition. I have been kicked out of one country for my missionary work. I have been unjustly fired in another country. I have abused my power and I have been abused by those in power.
I've received many rejection letters and still published books. I’ve fought fat and lost weight. I have many plaques from civic organizations in case anyone needs hardwood and metal plates for some kind of small craft project. I have an office suite. I have a "Dr." in front of my name and students mistakenly call me “professor.” And I have a great, if entirely misleading, job title. I still receive residuals from my appearances in a prime time television show. I’ve traveled worldwide, and lived overseas for decades.
For resume purposes I could go on and on.
So maybe I could write a book about resilience and success. Maybe I could write a book about how to lose weight. I could write a book about grief and loss. I could write a book about personal transformation. I could write a tell-all confessional and a weepy tale of repentance. I could write about my privilege and rage against being misunderstood. I suppose I could write about recovery and survival. Then I could write about overcoming my fear of rejection by writing a book I was afraid would be rejected. I could write a book on discipline if I was disciplined enough to write a book and not a blog! (Maybe a collection of blogs?)
Or I could write about being born in the right zip code, having a great upbringing, natural optimism, good genes, and good luck. Which is less compelling and much less gratifying but pretty much true.
My real problem is that the book I want to write has already been written. I read it decades ago, and for decades it has been the primary source of my teaching and speaking. It is a classic, but like most classics it has been badly abused by academics and preachers who prefer to dissect it as a corpse rather than live within its grand story. And maybe that is why even today Christians, presently wracked with anxiety, haven’t learned to live in that story and the one great lesson of that story.
You have a future. That is really what the Bible is about. You have a future. Humanity, you have a future. Israel, you have a future. United Methodists, you have a future.
When I was sweating with a diagnosis of malignant melanoma I had a future. When I was told that it was major surgery or die in hours I had a future. When I was told to go immediately to the ER because the tests had just come in I had a future. (And because I had a future I taught a class by Skype while I was in the emergency room.) When I was told to leave the country in 24 hours, and leave my family behind we had a future. When I was told to clear out my desk and leave the office and go to another country I'd never seen I had a future. And although I work in a UM institution that like all of them is threatened by the unknowns we face, I believe I have a future, and we have a future.
We think we have the ability to destroy that future through our recklessness, our unrighteousness, our weakness, and our continuing propensity to live in the past. We are wrong. And thinking we can destroy our future by our own power is the worst form of hubris. We are not capable of destroying our future. Powers far greater than ours have conspired to destroy our future and they have been defeated absolutely.
Not that we should sit on our hands. We do have the power to shape our present toward misery or happiness. And right now we are largely choosing misery. But that choice is based on the false belief that our future is in our hands and that we must frantically go about securing it. In reality all that is in our hands is our present, and even there our grip is mighty precarious. Still, it is where we can do some good, and we should.
My students in Malaysia and Singapore, many of whom were first generation Christians, often worried about the destiny of their parents and grandparents who didn’t know or follow Christ. It is an understandable fear. And the answer I gave my students, and which I offer to my fellow United Methodists is this: The destiny of your parents and grandparents, your home church and your denomination, like that of you and your children and grandchildren and your congregation, is not in your hands or my hands, thank God. Our hands are too small and too weak to take hold of human destiny. We are all in God’s hands, and those are the best hands to be in.
My father died when I was young. I have survived serious cancer, emergency surgery in a foreign land, a serious heart and a sometimes fatal lung condition. I have been kicked out of one country for my missionary work. I have been unjustly fired in another country. I have abused my power and I have been abused by those in power.
I've received many rejection letters and still published books. I’ve fought fat and lost weight. I have many plaques from civic organizations in case anyone needs hardwood and metal plates for some kind of small craft project. I have an office suite. I have a "Dr." in front of my name and students mistakenly call me “professor.” And I have a great, if entirely misleading, job title. I still receive residuals from my appearances in a prime time television show. I’ve traveled worldwide, and lived overseas for decades.
For resume purposes I could go on and on.
So maybe I could write a book about resilience and success. Maybe I could write a book about how to lose weight. I could write a book about grief and loss. I could write a book about personal transformation. I could write a tell-all confessional and a weepy tale of repentance. I could write about my privilege and rage against being misunderstood. I suppose I could write about recovery and survival. Then I could write about overcoming my fear of rejection by writing a book I was afraid would be rejected. I could write a book on discipline if I was disciplined enough to write a book and not a blog! (Maybe a collection of blogs?)
Or I could write about being born in the right zip code, having a great upbringing, natural optimism, good genes, and good luck. Which is less compelling and much less gratifying but pretty much true.
My real problem is that the book I want to write has already been written. I read it decades ago, and for decades it has been the primary source of my teaching and speaking. It is a classic, but like most classics it has been badly abused by academics and preachers who prefer to dissect it as a corpse rather than live within its grand story. And maybe that is why even today Christians, presently wracked with anxiety, haven’t learned to live in that story and the one great lesson of that story.
You have a future. That is really what the Bible is about. You have a future. Humanity, you have a future. Israel, you have a future. United Methodists, you have a future.
When I was sweating with a diagnosis of malignant melanoma I had a future. When I was told that it was major surgery or die in hours I had a future. When I was told to go immediately to the ER because the tests had just come in I had a future. (And because I had a future I taught a class by Skype while I was in the emergency room.) When I was told to leave the country in 24 hours, and leave my family behind we had a future. When I was told to clear out my desk and leave the office and go to another country I'd never seen I had a future. And although I work in a UM institution that like all of them is threatened by the unknowns we face, I believe I have a future, and we have a future.
We think we have the ability to destroy that future through our recklessness, our unrighteousness, our weakness, and our continuing propensity to live in the past. We are wrong. And thinking we can destroy our future by our own power is the worst form of hubris. We are not capable of destroying our future. Powers far greater than ours have conspired to destroy our future and they have been defeated absolutely.
Not that we should sit on our hands. We do have the power to shape our present toward misery or happiness. And right now we are largely choosing misery. But that choice is based on the false belief that our future is in our hands and that we must frantically go about securing it. In reality all that is in our hands is our present, and even there our grip is mighty precarious. Still, it is where we can do some good, and we should.
My students in Malaysia and Singapore, many of whom were first generation Christians, often worried about the destiny of their parents and grandparents who didn’t know or follow Christ. It is an understandable fear. And the answer I gave my students, and which I offer to my fellow United Methodists is this: The destiny of your parents and grandparents, your home church and your denomination, like that of you and your children and grandchildren and your congregation, is not in your hands or my hands, thank God. Our hands are too small and too weak to take hold of human destiny. We are all in God’s hands, and those are the best hands to be in.
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