Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Mat. 6:34)
We live in a future-oriented age. We have become so used to hearing about what is going to happen that we may not even notice it anymore. Newspapers and other print media must predict the future so that their news will seem to be as fresh as that available from radio or television in spite of the longer lead time. The more we know of the world around us, the greater the concern we have for our future.
Today it seems that every nation in the world is facing some kind of terrible problem, be it terrorism, pollution, famine, political upheaval, or a combination of them all. We live in a time where great events are unfolding, and we don't want to be caught unawares. We must try to see the future so that we can prepare for it as best we can.
There is an interesting paradox here, in that at the same time we are anxious about the future, we try to hold on to the past. Perhaps the reason we work so hard at preparing for the future while clinging to the past is that we wish to avoid facing our present situation, our present states, the jobs that are facing us right now the the stark realities of life. The present is where we were created to live, to work, and to begin the work of repentance, reformation, and regeneration.
We strive to know the future, we worry about what will happen so that we can plan for it, we believe that if we knew what the future held, we would be happier but would we really? Imagine what would happen if we really could know the future with absolute certainty. Just for example, let's say that you knew with absolute certainty that you were going to have a serious automobile accident, and you could also see all the steps leading up to it. You would have to proceed step by agonizing step toward the accident until it finally happened. The pain and suffering would be nothing compared to the agony of anticipating the accident with the knowledge that there was nothing that could be done to avoid it. Most of us would respond by saying that if we knew something bad was going to happen we would do something to avert it. But, if there was something that could be done to change it, we would not have truly seen the future, for it did not come to pass. We were only seeing possibilities.
Taking it one step further, what if you could know the future, not only possible futures, and you knew with absolute certainty that you would go to either heaven or hell? Would not your innate desire for freedom struggle against such knowledge? Wouldn't you fight as hard as you could to change that future? On the other hand, might you not just give up and resolve yourself to making the best of a bad deal. In either case, could you be said to be spiritually free?
This is where the problem with the desire to know the future lies. If we really could know something of the future, we would not be happier, as we might think, but instead, we would lose our spiritual freedom and be miserable. The whole point of our life in this world is to make ourselves into the people we wish to be by a series of free choices in spiritual things.
Certainly, the future concerns all of us. We can deal with the needs of the future by making and following plans for today. If we spend all our time worrying about our lot in the afterlife to the point of forgetting to amend our lives today, then our concern for our future is self-defeating. We can, however, approach the future by saying, "I want to go to heaven when I die, so I will try very hard to shun this sin today." The present is the only appropriate path for us to reach the future.
Spiritual time is different from natural time, but it is perceived by the angels in much the same way as we perceive time. To the particular point, angels do understand what is meant by past, present, and future. They see eternity far more clearly than we can because they are not limited by natural space and time, and they can see before them an endless period of unlimited possibilities. We are told in the Heavenly Doctrines that the angels have a sense of time where both the lessons of the past and the hopes of the future are brought together into their sense of the present, and because of this, and because of their trust in the Lord, they do not have any concern about future things.
In fact, the more interior and perfect the angels are, the less they care about things from their past, and the less they think about the things that are to come. Since anxiety comes from concern for the future, and the more interior angels think little about such things, we are told that their happiness itself comes from their lack of concern for the future. Of course, we can understand this when we realize that it is because the angels have an absolute confidence that the Lord is providing for their future, that they can trust that if they do their part in the present, the Lord will do His part to provide them a happy and useful life. They need not have any doubt about this, for all they need do is to observe the order of heaven, or the order of the world, and that the Lord constantly provides that the greatest good occurs in spite of the free-will choices of men.
The hells would very much like us to believe that we rule ourselves, that our future happiness and the future happiness of all those associated with us depends on what we do, on how well we plan for that happiness. The hells want us to believe this because the more we take on ourselves the things that belong to God, the less clearly we can see God's part in our lives. When we believe that our future depends solely on our actions and decisions we begin to be anxious, we begin to worry about things not going well, we worry that we will be blamed for mistakes, and so we try to imagine all the things that could go wrong and head them off with contingency plans. We take it all on ourselves. We blame ourselves when things go wrong, and we suffer because of it. We take credit to ourselves when things go well, and so become proud in our self-intelligence and all the while we are building more and more walls of selfishness and anxiety between the Lord and ourselves.
We need to be reminded constantly that of ourselves we can do nothing. Of ourselves we are nothing. If we choose to act according to the Lord's Word, He will appropriate good to us. If we choose to act according to our own selfish will, then we appropriate evil to ourselves but we are what we ourselves choose to be. But one thing we cannot choose to be, and that is a master of the future.
The whole area of concern for the future falls under the heading of the Lord's Government, or the Divine Providence, which must, of necessity, operate without anyone's conscious knowledge. We read from the Divine Providence that, man would have no liberty to act according to reason and there would be no appearance of self-activity if he perceived or felt the activity of Divine Providence, for if he did he would also be led by it.
What man is there who could perceive that a particular course was being provided by the Lord for his own eternal spiritual welfare, and then turn away from it? The Lord actually leads all men all the time by means of His Divine Providence, and part of that government is that man shall feel and believe that he leads himself, and that he should be able to acknowledge that the Lord leads from the man's own understanding of the Word. We read further that if man had a living perception or sense of being led, he would not be conscious of living life and would be moved to make sounds and act much like a graven image. If he were still conscious of living he would be led like one bound in manacles and fetters or like a yoked animal. Who does not see that man would have no freedom then? And without freedom he would be without reason, for one thinks from and in freedom; whatever he does not so think seems to him to be not from himself but from someone else. Indeed if you consider this interiorly you will perceive that he would not possess thought, still less reason, and hence would not be a human being".
The Lord has, in His Infinite Wisdom, deliberately withheld foreknowledge of future events from us, because He desires that we should be free in spiritual matters for the sake of our eternal happiness.
Foreknowledge of the future would destroy our delight in planning and doing useful things. In order to bring our dreams into being we try to figure out the best way to make them happen, we guide our course towards accomplishing our goals by means of our powers of reasoning. We love to take our ideas and make them work. If, from the very beginning of a project, the finished product and all the steps leading up to it were foreknown, we could play no real part in them. There would be no dreams to dream, no plans to plan, no joy of anticipation as we wondered if the reality would match the dream. If there was no love, no excitement, there would also be no challenge, no thought, no hope.
We have all had the experience of having a hope that someday a thing would happen, then working toward that goal for a long time, and finally feeling the joy of accomplishment. And then, the glow wears off, we forget the accomplished goal, and begin to tackle another dream. This is as it should be. We should be forward-looking, trying to improve the world, our homes, ourselves but if we had foreknowledge, it would be the same for us as if the goal was already dreamed, planned, and accomplished the instant it occurred to us, and our interest in it begin to wane even as it was born. All that would remain would be following the pre-ordained steps to complete the project. The same goal would be accomplished, but without the joy and freedom.
Since foreknowledge takes away from a man's ability to reason, for it takes away his need and desire to think and to plan, foreknowledge takes away from humanness itself. So the Lord has provided that no one is permitted to know the future; but everyone is allowed to form conclusions from their own observations and thought as to what the future might hold, for then a man's reason is in its own life. For this reason man may not know his lot after death, nor any other event large or small, until he actually experiences it in his own present. The desire to know the future is taken away from those who trust in the Lord's Divine Providence; and these trust that the Lord is in control of every aspect of their lives, and will provide for their eternal welfare at all times.
It is difficult for us to form this trust in the Lord's Divine Providence because we cannot see it directly. For all the reasons already mentioned, the Lord provides that we cannot see the operation of the Divine Providence in the future, for it would take away our freedom to act as-from-self. However, all of us can, if we wish, see the activity of the Lord's Divine Providence in our lives.
Every so often, we need to take some time to look back at the course of our own life, to reflect on the important, memorable things that have happened. Most of us can look back and see things that, when they actually happened to us, seemed to be terrible personal tragedies, but have actually worked out for the best in the long run. Or, some may be able to trace a series of seemingly unimportant unconnected decisions that lead us through a series of improbable circumstances to find the one who would eventually become our eternal partner.
When we see the course of our lives in retrospect, or hindsight, we can see the hand of Divine Providence. Having seen it in retrospect, we can then have the confidence to say with heart and mind that since we can clearly see that the Lord's Divine Providence was working for us in the past, it must therefore be working for us in our present and future. The Lord is constantly leading us into our own individual future with a sure and gentle hand.
The future does not yet exist for us. The past is gone. We live only in the present for the sake of our rational eternal lives. The future is governed by the Lord's Divine Providence, and we cannot know it until it arrives. If we are to be rational, happy people, without anxieties about what will happen in the future, we must learn to live day by day, and trust in the Lord.
This does not mean that we are to ignore the future, and make no plans, for we are told that it is the desire to make things better, to hope for improvement is something that gives us joy and makes us human. What we need to do is have dreams for the future, and do all we can to accomplish them today. We need to shun evils as sins, not someday, but today. We need to be kind to our neighbor, not sometime next week, but today. We need to trust that the Lord will provide for our eternal happiness, today. AMEN.
LESSONS:
1st Lesson: Gen 21:1-7
And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. {2} For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. {3} And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him; whom Sarah bore to him; Isaac. {4} Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. {5} Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. {6} And Sarah said, "God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me." {7} She also said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age." Amen.
2nd Lesson: Mat 6:25-34
"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? {26} "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? {27} "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? {28} "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; {29} "and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. {30} "Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? {31} "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' {32} "For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. {33} "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. {34} "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Amen.
3rd Lesson: Arcana Caelestia
5177. They who have been very solicitous about the future, and especially they who have therefore become grasping and avaricious, appear in the region where the stomach is. Many have appeared to me there. The sphere of their life may he compared to a sickening smell which is exhaled from the stomach, and also to the heaviness from indigestion. They who have been of this character stay long in this region, because solicitude about the future, when confirmed by act, greatly dulls and retards the influx of spiritual life; for they attribute to themselves that which is of the Divine Providence; and they who do this obstruct the influx, and take away from themselves the life of good and truth. Amen.