Listen to the commentary

Dear Marketplace Friend,

Today is the first Monday of the last quarter of a never-again year. Just 92 days to get ‘er done before you slip 2023 into your hard drive’s history. Coming out of the CE (covid era), you were finally ready to move forward with some confidence that you weren’t going to be face masked (that’s a severe 15-yard penalty in the NFL, but in politics, it became an uncalled error that resulted in the “delay of game” that became internationally toxic). A quarter left: what will you be able to accomplish?

I know you’ve got some really important wrap-up on your short-term horizon, but while you’re taking care of that immediate business, we’re going to spend these last-of-the-year weeks to look over the horizon – into 2024 and beyond – to make sure that we find ourselves strategically positioned for what’s coming next while we manage through the maze of the months ahead.

You’re way more savvy about the important things of life than the folks who will be in your next business meeting, or the neighbors who will crowd into your next HOA annual-meeting slugfest. The fans near you in football central don’t know what you know; even the folks who regularly sit near you in “live” church are probably more culturally minded than you who are biblically grounded. Here’s my pop-quiz query: is God more into/focused on yesterday, today or tomorrow?

Without intending to spark a debate, let me give you the right (my) answer: God is far more interested in tomorrow than yesterday or today. (If you’d like to disagree, you can use the comments opportunity at the bottom of this page!)

It’s been 35 years since Stephen Covey released his signature work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The second habit he proposed, from his research regarding the top-tier performers in the human race: Begin with the End in Mind. His observation distilled wisdom that had been verified throughout Bible history: until you’re clear about what you want tomorrow to be, your efforts today will likely be scattershot and of limited value. 

God lives outside time, but he created time as a reality for us to deal within. Jesus exists as God, and is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). True for him is not true for us: if we’ve been redeemed into the family of God through faith in the death/burial/resurrection of the Lord Jesus, our past as fallen people is no longer disabling, and our focus on tomorrow can now direct our steps in ways unknown to unregenerate people. Today becomes strategically actionable with eternal importance.

The Evil One points to our abysmal past and wants us to accept a disabled identity aligned with fallenness. The Holy One points to our triumphant future and wants us to recognize and activate our capability to live in keeping with our new nature. Our challenge – until we arrive in the ultimate Tomorrow of Eternity – is to join God in navigating each day toward tomorrow, unfettered by the past.

Religion – the institutional sham that claims spiritual authority but disses the voice of the Almighty – is mired in yesterday: rituals, traditions, empty exercises that are inherently lifeless. True faith connects with the God whose own self-definition calls out the difference: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain; the first things have passed away. And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” (Revelation 21:4-5) God is out to wipe-out the past and make everything new!

On the way to Eternity, we live each today with the hope – based on divine promises! – of better tomorrows. Unless we embrace the expectation that God paints our future path as progress toward our Ultimate, the risk of getting stuck in a Ground Hog Day continuum is likely, and limiting.

What does tomorrow look like, for you? Across the key dimensions of life, we’re going to ask and answer that question between now and year-end. Today, in pursuit of Tomorrow. That’s what God intends for us, between here and Heaven. Are you ready to look over the horizon of Today with me?

Bob Shank