It is vitally important that we plan for the future. Many unexplored areas of our life will come quicker than we think. If we are not careful, we will procrastinate about making plans for the future. In our personal lives, we become keenly aware of the unknown in our future when starting a family, taking a new job, opening a business, or moving to a new town. We never can be sure what will happen to us, but the great people of our past would advise that we have a better chance of succeeding if we prepare ourselves as well as possible.
Edward Cornish, the author of the book Futuring: The exploration of the future, wrote “we are all time travelers on a journey into the future. However, we are not tourists accompanied by a guide who can tell us what lies ahead and will keep us safe and comfortable. Instead, we are explorers in an unknown and dangerous region that no one has seen before us.”
Cornish’s notion about the unknown in the future is revealed to us through the lens of a pandemic. Three years ago, we did not foresee the devastation that COVID-19 would have on the world, let alone here in the United States. All of our lives have been turned upside down. We are careful about how we mix socially in public places, such as where we dine or where we shop. We want to know if the place of business is in compliance with the CDC guidelines.
We are now in inflationary times. Gas prices have risen to an all time high. Food prices are much more expensive than they were three years ago. Those who came before us, express many different opinions about what lies ahead. Some of them foresaw many different joyful and happy times. Some of them foresaw a marvelous paradise and a time filled with wonderful new technologies that would keep us all well-fed, healthy, and happy. However, others warned of doom in one form or another as an ecological catastrophe, a new ice age or a collision with a comet, or any of an endless variety of other threats, some more plausible than others.
But no organization planned for a catastrophic event like a pandemic with millions dying across the globe. All of us know someone who has died from this disease, and more are likely to die. So, as we plan for our future, consideration should be given toward the unknown. Our parents had a saying they believed: “preparing for a rainy day.” My question to you is this: what plans have you made for a rainy day? It has been said by many that “those who don’t plan, plan to fail.” So, Never Give Up! Never Give Up! Never Give Up!
By Dr. Walter Ghosten
chaplain@lhp.net
