'The Future'

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Former Presidential candidate Al Gore has written a book called “The Future.” I haven’t read that book, but I, like most people, think about the future.

Nearing age 66, I may be playing in the last quarter of my game. Looking back, I see things I could have done differently in the first three quarters of that game. But, Satchel Paige said, “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” The Apostle Paul told us to “forget those things which are behind and press forward toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

As a person ages, the future appears less and less like the wide open spaces and more and more like a narrow hallway, if “this life” preoccupies his mind.

“The future” presents challenges to mature folk like me. I try to keep my mind on these words Paul also wrote: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” But my natural mind continues to flip back to things in this physical and spiritually broken world.

“The future,” to me, can represent a narrowing of options. And thoughts about anticipated hardships and physical suffering can create in me a curmudgeon persona. I don’t want to be remembered as a negative old man. I want my thoughts to stay on the real future, the eternal future that goes way beyond the physical future many older folk worry about.