Hallelujah!
You can be a person of the future!
"I am from the future, you know"
Suppose someone was doing things in a way that did not make sense to you. They were good things perhaps, but you could not see what benefit the person was getting from doing them. When you asked about his motives he said, "I am from the future, you know."
Wouldn't you say that person had lost touch with reality? Perhaps you would tell the person, "Get real." Everybody in their right mind knows that reality is the visible present. Time is a one-way street from past to present to future. Time machines only exist in sci-fi.
If you have been living under the illusion that no one in the real world can be "a person of the future", Vision Season is a great time to prove yourself wrong. You can become a person of the future.
You can get real about reality, but here is the catch. The real you is not the you of your past or your present. The real you is the future you. Your authentic self is the future one, the one that is in SYNC with the future of all reality. That is the self you will discover when you quit kidding yourself about the future and you get clued in to what Jesus had to say about the future and the present.
Jesus came to announce the arrival of the future
Many people mistakenly believe that Jesus came primarily to create a way for us to get into heaven in the future, when we die. True, he did that but it was not what he talked about all the time.
His main message was about the future arriving on earth now, that is, the "kingdom" (or reign) of God beginning on earth. Jesus issued an official proclamation of this.
Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message." (Mark 1.15)
He spread the proclamation and strategically sent others to proclaim it nation-wide. He called people to accept his proclamation as a reality and to live like people would live if they believed him. They become "people of the future," people who know that the future reign of God is already getting underway on earth. They can't wait for the rest of God's heavenly power to arrive. It will transform the whole world in the amazing way it is already gradually transforming the people of the future.
Jesus was killed for spreading his proclamation because he, with no official religious or political authority, was talking as if he was God's "Messiah". The Messiah is the title the prophets had used for centuries to describe the one special person appointed by God to transform the present age into the "Messianic Age", the world of the future. Under the liberating control of the Messiah, the world would be perfect.
Let the future dawn on you
"Rise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Real God rises on you." Isaiah 60.1.
Many people who follow Jesus believe that his eventual return will be like flipping a light switch. The dark side of reality will be suddenly eliminated by the light. Our broken and painful reality will be replaced with a fabulous new reality. In a flash, earthly people will become heavenly, and imperfect people will become perfect.
On the other hand, many people who do not follow Jesus believe the future will be whatever we make it. In that case we need to apply as much force as necessary to get as much of our desired future as possible, or at least to keep the future from turning out even worse than the present. Politicians are people who claim to know how to apply force to move from the present toward the desired future.
In contrast to both groups, authentic people of the future let the future dawn on us. We do not force it any more than we force the sun to rise, but we do hail the dawn and get excited as the darkness changes to twilight.
Make no mistake. Sunrise (the personal return of Jesus to earth) is still a dramatic event that will suddenly change everything. But dawn-lovers do not sit still waiting for it like people in a dark room, waiting for someone to switch the light on for them. Dawn-lovers wake up and enjoy the dawn light they already have.
Dawn-lovers also start doing the things they will easily do in the full light of day. They stretch. They move around freely without fearing the things that creep and crawl in the night. They greet friends. They sing because they know they have the upper hand as darkness lifts.
They are "people of the future," living as if the sun has risen because they can see it is just about to rise.
Getting real about the present
As you get into the idea of Vision Season, you gradually realize who Jesus really is--the Messiah, the person who brings the perfect future into our messed up present. This realization is a gift we receive from God and spread to others, just like the blessings of the other six seasons--Life, Roots, Freedom, Power, Mercy, and Worth.
God is on a Get Real campaign in the present, and that campaign will succeed. The world will be connected, healed, and blessed, just as God has drawn up the plan. That is our guaranteed future. That is reality. People of the future see it already; everyone will see it eventually.
For the time being, we live as if that is already a reality. That way the people who can't see the reality yet for themselves can get a preview of it because they can see us. Some of them will like what they see, catch the vision, and join us as people of the future.
We live generously now because we believe in a future when God will reward us. Our sacrifices in the present are ways of investing in our future.
Of course, if we are wrong about Jesus, if he is not the one God assigned to bring the Messianic utopia into reality, then all our "investments" will be lost. We were out of touch with reality when we invested. However, there is no cause for alarm among the people who think we are crazy. Our "crazy" view of Jesus and the future leads us to sacrifice our own welfare for other people's good. They benefit in the present from our "mistaken" view of the future.
So we come to life's biggest question in the 21st Century: What is really going on? What is the difference between apparent reality and real reality? We people of the future believe we know the answer.