day 1314: Predicting The Future

"Yet I want your will will not mine."

I read with great curiosity of the new company, "300" and what it is supposed to do for the music industry.  Founded by longtime music executive, Lyor Cohen, the idea is that 300 will mine Twitter's database of tweets and that information will play the role of a music A&R person who scouts for the next big hits, trends, bands or artists of interest.  It's like listening in on the conversations of people streaming out of a nightclub after hearing a new band and seeing what they are saying, who they are telling, and what they think. Will it work?  Who knows.  I tend to think that what people talk about on Twitter is more negative than positive, so maybe it will help negate false positives better than the random process today of discovering new artists and music.  What this boils down to is another "better way" to predict the future.  We all want the data, science and ability to do so for our businesses, that is why we spend all that money and time on surveying and research.  At the end of the day, data does matter and the future is many times found within the unknown that can't be predicted any other way.

How assuring and comforting it is to know what our future with Christ will be.  God's Word is clear on how we will spend eternal life with Him. If we use that as our end point and then work ourselves backward to today, then it becomes much clearer on what our priorities and daily undertakings should consist. As we look at the calendars in front of us today and we compare what we have planned and what we think God has in His will for us, where are the conflicts?  Remove one or all of those conflicts today and you will find that your walk with Him will deepen and strengthen.  Our future is predicted and secure for us.  Our daily walk is now up to us.

Reference: Matthew 26:39 (New Living Translation)

day 1299: Hanging Onto The Past

"This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people."

We never know what from the past will show up in the present.  And when it does, all bets are off as to the reaction.  Sometimes this will be astonishment, amazement and wonder.  Other times the past will dredge up memories that still sting and hurt and cause even greater resentment.  And the past can also be a ho-hum as we have moved forward so far that we can't truly recognize and appreciate what it must have been like back then.  On December 31st this story was published about the discovery of  a blue color referenced in the Old Testament.  You can read about this blue dye here.  Why does this matter to our businesses?  In business we many forget the past and once a few people have have moved on, we have no recollection of shared learning of what we had already discovered in the past that could be relevant today.  We don't keep "archives" like a museum or repository.  But, that doesn't mean we should ignore our pasts.  Our pasts can be rich with knowledge and treasures, that if we pay attention towards, might well open up the insights we need for the future.

Many times in our spiritual lives we are taught to put the past behind us and move forward.  That is correct when our past is what holds us back spiritually.  But, our past can also be very valuable to others if we are just willing to share it openly.  We each have cataloged a set of experiences that if we were to keep in context of our present and future would be lessons for those around us.  These lessons can come from both our success and our failure.  When we open up with others about our past there is a humanity that comes through that gives us the opportunity to share what really drives us forward.  God's message is one that is rooted in the past, given to us in the present, and full of a future of promise.  Why wouldn't we want to share all that He has done for us?

Reference: Colossians 1:26 (New Living Translation)

day 1147: How Fast Is The Future Moving?

"For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope" 

How fast does the future move?  We find ourselves saying that the future "sneaks up on us", but that isn't true as the future comes at us no fast than how time of the future passes.  Yet, is does feel like the future comes at us fast and sometimes it can even startle us.  I was at the Institute of the Future this past week and walked away being reminded that while we can't predict the future we can, if we work at it hard enough begin to make some assumptions about what might happen that would prepare us for when the future does arrive.  But still, the future does like to snap our heads back every now and then.  Thanks to this picture given to me by futurist Herman Gyr, you can expect to have your eyes opened.  Compare these pictures from the past two Installments of the Pope:

This picture also stands as a reminder to us that our time on this earth is fleeting and that our future is to be firmly planted in God's Kingdom. God has His plan for each of us and when and how that future shows up is not in our hands, but instead are to be given to Him for us to follow in faith. As we think about how we will bring glory to God in our work today, tomorrow and going forward, let's focus on what we can do today to be prepared and ready for what God has in store for us.  His future for us is bright!

Reference: Jeremiah 29:11 (New Living Translation)

day 624: Perservance For The Future

"It was in the midspring, during the fourth year of Solomon's reign, that he began the construction of the Temple of the Lord. This was 480 years after the people of Israel were delivered from their in the land of Egypt."

In business, we just can't think day to day, week to week, month to month, or quarter to quarter. We have to have a long-range vision and plan to execute if we are going to continue to move in a constant and direction. However, this is harder to do than say. Forces are always moving against and toward us to take off of our plan and to deviate from the vision. It's not easy to stay consistent and to follow through. Most of us would never think of what we do on our job having much, if any, bearing on what the company will be like in 50 years. I have a friend who likes to ask people in their jobs if then can name the person who was in the job before them, and then before them, and then before them. Unless they are CEOs, the line of questioning usually stops at the third generation question. Better yet, ask someone who was the first person in the company to be in the job and they won't have a clue. We don't think that long, even though we should. If we did, then we might find that we would make better decisions and investments of our money, resources and time. It's just not in our DNA to think much further ahead than the lifetimes of our offspring and when we do think about the future it is usually bleak or fatalistic. When did Hollywood create a movie about the future that was not post-apocalyptic? Yet, it is easy for us to make the past look good. To be the best we can be, we need to be able to look into the future and then deal with it for the hope and the optimism that only the future can bring.

Solomon built the Temple from what should have been started 480 years earlier, even though he wasn't around then. He planned and laid the foundation that nearly 500 years of history would be built upon. He gives an example of what it means to grasp a vision and then stick to it, without waver. Maybe what some of us need to do is start looking a little harder now for the future and then setting a plan to get there. If we decide that that future in our careers and life are to be days, weeks, years and decades that we will invite God to walk along and inside of us then we will find that we can see a bright and exciting future that others will want to follow us towards. The walk we make to the future with conviction and perseverance is a powerful message to others who are looking for a reason to want to see the future. Think today about what that futuristic direction you can begin taking today and will follow through with as Solomon did with the Temple. Start building that future today. Another day of waiting gains nothing.

Reference: 1 Kings 6:1 (New Living Testament)

day 127: Now

We just finished the first quarter of the year and started the second. And for sure already in boardrooms and offices across the country companies are making their projections for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th quarters and for the full year. This is how business works. We don't live in the present. We are always planning and forecasting the future. The future can be exciting and become consuming and we want to get there as fast as we can. Sometimes the future can be bleak and full of expected trouble and we know we have to go there but we go with worry and trepidation. The future can get in the way of living for the present and enjoying and working with the life that we have been given. In C.S. Lewis' classic book, "The Screwtape Letters", the devils' undersecretary named Screwtape explains to his agent and nephew named Wormwood that God doesn't want us to work and live in the future if it is going to get in the way of glorifying God in the present. Read along as two devils correspond on what we as humans shouldn't do: "To be sure the Enemy (God) wants men to think of the Future too - just so much as is necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow. The duty of planning the morrow's work is today's duty; though its material is borrowed from the future, the duty, like all duties, is in the Present. This is now straw splitting. He (God) does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasures in it. We (the devil) do (does). His (God's) ideal is a man, who having worked all day for the good of posterity (if that is his vocation), washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to Heaven, and returns at once to the patience or gratitude demanded in the moment that is passing over him. But we (the devil) want a man hag-ridden by the Future...we want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the Present". We are told in Proverbs that the plans that we have for our future are not in our hands anyway; "We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps." As we plan our future business and our jobs, we should remind ourselves that the earthly future that overtakes our ability to focus, live and be who are to be in the present is not the future we should be pursuing.

Reference: Proverbs 16:9 (New Living Testament), C.S. Lewis: "The Screwtape Letters"