Psychologists tell us anticipation, which is the opposite of surprise, is an emotion with marvelous healing powers. Can you imagine a world without anticipation? That’s an innocent question but, just now as I re-read it, it hit me hard in the gut that I surely must realize the majority of the worlds 9 billion population today never did, or no longer do, have the opportunity to engage in joyful anticipation. Just how would you & I ever cope with nothing to look forward to?
Do I dare here even suggest a three generation comparison of satisfaction markers be it personal, family, vocational and especially health benchmarks, to get a damage assessment of the culture’s current confusion and chaos to society and the stability for future generations? I tend to think the time for such academic considerations are long past, and that the “endowed & empowered persons capable of anticipation” must unite in focus as detailed below here, and hopefully from past and future blogs.
So, if there is no, or only limited anticipation, then welcome to world of non-Christianity. And fact is, such may also be true for the “not yet” transformed cultural Christians struggling for their identity in the shadows of the Almighty, for without Christ, there can be no ultimate anticipation. There may be momentary prospects of anticipation and even incremental excitement sporadically, but a lasting assured fruitful anticipation is just not happening. Whether you’re among the procrastinating “not yet transformed” cultural Christians, or even an avowed atheist, your future has no promise; it holds no hope. Everything is, or will, soon perish. Death will be the termination of our lives, our families, our fortunes, our civilization, and even the universe itself.
God created both the good and the evil, so that we would have a choice of whom we will serve; be it the Dark, or the Light. Are you beginning to understand the rampant struggle we’re witnessing right now in our culture for personal identities on so many fronts, with so much chaos and confusion? We should not be surprised “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
You know, these days I am often reminded (though I never bothered to look up the words until just now) of the title to Peggy Lee’s song “Is That All There Is” as written by Mike Stoller and Jerry Lieber in the early 70’s inspired by, and understandably so, by one of Thomas Martin’s short stories, titled “Disillusionment.” Even I, then being only a 23 year-old rootless cultural Christian not yet transformed, recognized the potential undermining depravity of such “worldly” thinking as echoed in the song’s chorus:
“Is that all there is? Is that all there is?
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball if that’s all there is…
Mike and Jerry used a house fire, a circus, and a “lost cause puppy love heartbreak” for their visual stage of dis-illusioned despondency. Here is the last verse:
I know what you must be saying to yourselves
“If that’s the way she feels about it, why doesn’t she just end it all?”
Oh no, not me
I’m not ready for that final disappointment, Cause I know just as I’m standing here talking to you
And when that final moment comes and I’m breathing my last breath, I’ll be saying to myself
Is that all there is……Chorus
Wow! Is that a sermon in a song or what? Understand, I’ve deliberately chosen not to listen to the song because time has totally erased my memory of even a smidgen of its melody, and that is good! I am quite vulnerable to being emotionally triggered by such negative sights & sounds of darker days & times, so we’ll just let that sleeping dog lie…. You get the picture?
Bottom Line: Thank God we have a Message and Mission of Hope and Light to Dispense and Disperse while we yet tarry here, Living & Building His Kingdom Today while relishing our Joy anticipating the future return of our Lord and transitioning to the mansions He has prepared for us. May we choose to live in His vastness of anticipation today and encourage others either on the fence or in the wilderness to physically & spiritually join us anticipating the wonder & goodness of life in its richest and fullest dimensions.
On every page of the Bible there are words of God that give reason to hope… In the promises of God I find inspiration and new hope. Charles A Allen
The above was inspired by the April 8 reading “Anticipation” in David Jeremiah’s “Discovery: Experiencing God’s Word Day By Day” and revamped and expanded by merlin.
LIFE Perspectives Offered Now from Hindsight…
Possibly for your Foresight, BUT,
Only by His Continual Grace & Mercy…