There's a small part of the world...

There is a small* part of the world where:

Too often people have lost hope
because loneliness is endemic and love is not often found
and many choose to be sex objects just in order to find closeness.

Where people worship idols,
and graven images are held in such high esteem that they are to die for,
and the main religion is materialism.

Where words are twisted and honesty is rare,
back-stabbing and character-assassination is rife
and where ‘news’ actually means gossip.

Where justice means those with the biggest bank-balance are right
Where civilisation means having a big arms industry.

Where people think they are rich, and yet they are poor
Where health means no more than the absence of illness
Where experts know everything, except about how to live.

Where people engage more with the virtual world than with reality,
because reality is too painful
and life is so bitter it's better to use alcohol and drugs to numb the mind.

It's called 'the West' or the 'Developed World'.


* ‘The West’ (the North American, European and Australasian continents plus Japan) amounts to about 22% of the world’s population. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

(You may be reading this in ‘The West’ and object to these generalisations if they don’t reflect your personal experience. However, even greater generalisations are used to describe the majority world: ‘poor’, ‘lazy’, ‘corrupt’, etc.)

The future is only what you make it now

We probably tend to assume that we have little control over the future. Almost by definition, we don't know what the future holds.

Except that this is largely not true. Do you want know what you'll be like as an old man or woman? Then read on...

More than anything else, we are creatures of habit. Neuroscience shows us that as we repeat certain thought patterns and behaviours we build up neural pathways in our brains to match, so that these thoughts and behaviours become more and more familiar and automatic, even to the extent that doing something different becomes difficult. This is just to say, that as we practice certain ways of thinking and behaving they become entrenched; they become our character.

So what we'll be like in the future is in fact very predictable - we will very likely be much the same as today, only more so!

A handful of simple examples:

• If I would like to be respected and have a large circle of friends in my old age, but in the present I am well practiced at telling lies and annoying people, then my dream future will probably only be that - a dream. It is much more likely that I face a lonely old age, distrusted by others...
• If I want to feel at peace and contented, but spend the present worrying and being anxious, then I'm getting better and better at worrying, but getting no practice at being content! Why do I think I'll suddenly become good at it later?
• If I want my children to be close to me as I grow older, but I only talk to them to criticise or make demands, then ... well, you can see where this is going ....

So, take a look at your life. What are you practising in the present:

• being self-centred, independent, or distant?
• taking things easy and sleeping?
• being anxious, controlling or snappy?
• working and driving yourself and others hard?
• keeping your word and being truthful?
• trusting in God and knowing his faithfulness?

This applies in the Christian faith as much as in anything else. For example: what do you do when you face a difficulty - worry or pray? Which are you practicing and getting better at? Of course, there will be unexpected events in the future, and God isn't above intervening in surprising ways. And it is possible to call on Jesus to turn you around completely - which he will if you'll let him.

If you look at yourself and where you are headed and don't like what you see, then it is not too late to change track. But the more practice you have had on your current path, the more difficult it will be to 'do different'. So, when we think 'I'll get round to it later' - as is so easy - we need to bear in mind that it will only become harder as time goes by.

So if you want to become a certain kind of person, it's high time you begin to get in some practice... The future is only what you make it now.