by Clarke Dixon
You may be facing 2018 with the thought that it will be yet another year of things being beyond your control. The future is not in your hands. Some will say that you have a fatalistic way of looking at things and will call you a pessimist. You may respond that you are a realist. Or you may be facing 2018 with the determination to make it a good year, because, after all, it is in your hands. You have an empowered way of thinking of the future. Some people will call you naive and wonder how you could be so overly-optimistic. They think you are in need of a reality check.
Is the future in our hands or not? The Book of Ecclesiastes can help us find think about our attitude toward the future. Consider these verses:
1 For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NLT)
The tone in which we read these verses can tell us the kind of attitude we have toward the future. We should be aware that there is another way to look at it and read it. Let us take as an example the very last phrase; there is “a time for war and a time for peace”. If this were the Scripture Reading and Winston Churchill the reader for a Sunday worship service in 1940 following the return of British troops from France, would he have read it with a tone or resignation, or determination? Would his tone be dour, or defiant? Would he have read it in a way that says “we have no control over Hitler’s war machine which now stands poised to take on Britain, world events are not in our hands, and so unfortunately it is a time for war”? Or would he have read it in a manner that says “we have control over our destiny, the future is in our hands, so now is a time to buckle down and get ready for war”? We don’t need to guess. A famous speech delivered on 4th of June 1940 contained both a realistic assessment of what was out of British control, and a determination to take control of the situation. It contained a recognition of what was, and was not, in hand:
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, . . . (source: Wikipedia)
This was a time for war, meaning that, yes, things have happened which are out of our control, but also meaning that, yes, things will happen which are. We may have no control over Hitler’s war machine. But we have control over our response. You may have no control over a frightening health diagnosis, or a tragic event in a loved one’s life, or an unfortunate decision made by your partner, and the list can go on. There are so many things that are not in our hands, these are the brute facts of life. But we can always control our response to the brute facts. We can fight, adapt, pray, encourage, admonish, forgive, there are so many possibilities to choose from.
Speaking of things we have no control over, here is something else that we have no control over; the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. These are brute facts of history. And along with them comes the brute fact of God’s love. A rare person might take back a Christmas gift once given, but the gift of that first Christmas will never be taken back. God will never undo the events of Christmas, Easter, or Pentecost. Therefore, here is another brute fact that is not in our hands; 2018 will be a year of the LORD offering each day to walk in loving relationship with us. Our response is in our hands. There is a time for everything, including a time to resolve to walk more closely with our Lord and Saviour. You may feel like the future, and especially your future, is not in your hands, but it is in His.
I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. Ecclesiastes 3:14 (NRSV)
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