If I had known ...

Over the years many people have said “if I had know then what I know now,  I    would never have … etc, etc.’

But surely that is the problem? We never are able to predict the future with any degree of certainty, and hindsight is a mixed blessing.

So I ask you the basic question: how far would you like to see into the future? Will you take: a day, a week, or a year?  Indeed, would you dare to try and see ten years into your own personal future? It is tempting to consider little “snap shots,” but how could you ever put them into any form of context?

The other matter that has to be taken into consideration is how much we can truly shape our own future. We take exams, we try to keep fit, we fill our lives with many forms of learning, but in the end we return, as the Bible warns, “to dust.”

So NO, I do not want to know what is coming. Actually, I only need to know about my own daily walk through life.  And (thank God) of those who are walking with me. Hope is, on the other hand, a very useful thing to have. There again I turn the pages of my Bible:

“To every thing there is a season.”

“Do not be afraid” (found 366 times)

 

David Taylor
21.9.2020