An Open Future

One of my pet peeves is when I hear people say of one who has died, "It must have been her time."   I understand that there is some comfort in that thought.  After all, if I believe that God has numbered my days, or the days of my loved ones, so that even the day and the time of death is pre-determined, something of the fear-factor of life is diminished.  I can make my decisions, even risky ones, and say, "Well, I guess if it's my time, it's my time." 

What troubles me about the 'it must have been her time' mindset is that it assumes that the future is already determined, set in stone and nothing will change it.  Again, I understand how that thought can bring comfort.  The problem, in my view, is that this mindset robs us of one of the richest and most beautiful gifts of Christian spirituality, namely, that we are partners with God in shaping the future.  This is seen again and again in the stories of the Bible.  One of my favorites is the story of Jonah, where Jonah reluctantly agrees to go preach the message of God's judgment of the people of Nineveh.  When the inhabitants of that great city repent of their evil ways, we are told that "God changed his mind (!!!)" about the judgment God had announced.  The pagan people of Nineveh turned their lives toward God in such a way that they changed the future!

I believe that the future is open, and that gives a great sense of meaning and responsibility for how I live out my days.  I believe that we can face the future with hope.  Jesus proclaimed that the time of God's reign has drawn near.  His resurrection signals to us that the power of life has swallowed up the power of death.  God's renewal power is let loose in the world, even now, even in this moment as I write, and you read.   In very broad strokes, it seems to me, we can say that God's work of renewal will win the day.  We can imagine that day even now.  Indeed, I believe we must imagine that day even now.   The book of Revelation says that on that day God will say, "Behold, I make all things new"--the completion of God's renewal project!

That said, I believe that the the hopeful future  is only painted in broad strokes.  Much is left to be determined.  We are partners with God in the shaping of the future.  Our decisions really matter.  If we wish, we can, individually and collectively, resist the power of renewal all the way to the grave.  We can hasten our death or prolong it by the choices we make.  We can live before we die, or not.  The most horrific events in human history do not happen because God has willed them (think of the Holocaust, the contemporary tragedy in Darfur), but because humans, individually and collectively, resist God's renewing power unto the worst imaginable ends.  On the other hand, we can partner with God, give ourselves to God's resurrection power, join ourselves to God's healing project, and contribute to the beauty which God is begetting in the creation.  Such, it seems to me, is the calling of the sacred adventure.