Dreaming of a better tomorrow?

Remember those 50’s era films about the kitchen of tomorrow? One of them actually had a housewife feeding a recipe card into a slot which triggered the cooking of a birthday cake frosted and ready to go, candles and all. There were many other whiz bang devices that should easily be available by the year 2000. What a wonderful future we had in store. Needless to say, these items have not materialized. I don’t have an electronic butler and my refrigerator, unless you count getting crushed ice or cubed, is not that impressive of a place. It still manages to culture some scientific experiments but I hardly believe that is what they had in mind.

It is easy to make predictions isn’t it? Remember when the internet was going to replace every pet store and bicycle shop known to man? I still remember laughing at the thought of getting a twenty pound bag of Kibbles n' Bits in the mail and thinking, only the post office is going to make money off of this deal

Predictions are a dime a dozen. They are easy to make and nearly impossible to be held responsible for. Think of all the sports guys making a fortune making predictions. Any of them lose their jobs because they weren’t right?

The church is full of predictors today. Any number of people seem to have a pulse on things to come. What happens when they are wrong? I can laugh about twenty pound kibble, but what do I do when it is people’s souls?

Recently I have had to come to grip with my predictions. My rosy outlook. My vision of things to come. What happens when what you thought was going to happen doesn’t happen? Do you fold up tent and move on? Do you say, this must not be the place for me? What happens when what the church says it wants and what it is willing to do are two different things?

Those kitchens of the future were cute and funny and full of stainless steal, but no one ever said a family of four was going to actually use that kitchen in the 50’s. What ministry do I miss while I long for my stainless steal, card eating, cake producing church experience? How many real people do I drive by, all the while, pining for the day when I can be at the church of the future?

This has been bouncing around my head so loudly this month that I have to listen. I know it is not as glamorous as seeking to create the next great thing, and yet I have to wonder if it isn’t more practical and more Kingdom producing.

I can’t help but think of those other children of Israel as they traveled the wilderness some thousand years ago. I can’t help but hear them complaining in Exodus 11:4-6, and I can’t help but wonder if I’m not the same.

"The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"

I don’t even know what a leek is but they make it sound awfully good. That is quite the set up they are talking about there. Fish, cucumbers, melons? Throw in some top sirloin and I can’t see where you could go wrong. It seems all of those years of abuse and hardship vanish away and all they can see is some twenty-four hour all you can eat buffet, leave the plates at the table.

I know they were looking back, not looking forward, and yet I hear something in their longing that reminds me of my own. It sounds too close to my thoughts for comfort, especially when I see how disrespectful they were towards God.

I sometimes wonder if the priest and Levite were thinking of their church of the future as they walked by the wounded traveler in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

This past week I spent a couple of days at a church camp with my family. I ended up in a cabin with three young men. I only had responsibility for the kids that I brought and since I brought only my family it was pretty easy. For whatever reason these three young men choose me to be their sponsor even though they already had one.

They asked me everything and followed me everywhere. They invited me to sit with them at every opportunity. It was in this moment that I realized that I have a responsibility for today. I have a responsibility for those God brings my way today, not tomorrow. Not if I get the kind of church I want to minister at. Not if I get the kind of people who want to follow me. I have a responsibility today to do what I can in the situation I am in.

In the future things may change. I may be in that place that is really cool and just like I had envisioned. But that day is not today. I will stop trying to live in the church of tomorrow because, if truth be told, they never work out like you think they will.

I got home from camp and stopped by a family’s house whose father never comes to church. I called a member whose son has been having trouble with the law to see if we could go fishing. I began to minister with my today church. If my church of tomorrow is all that I believe it will be then that is great, but why ruin today dreaming of a church, that if God wills it, will always be there tomorrow?