Predicting The Future: Be Careful What You Wish For

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

I read an article not too long ago that said people today think that in 50 years, the world will be a much worse place. There’s even a word for it. It’s declinism.

Basically, we seem to think that our best years are behind us and the future won’t be any better.

Back in the 1950s, a generation of people had just come out of the worst war ever seen. Depression, disease and fear ruled the day. You would think that the people of the 1950s would have a worse outlook on life than what we do today.

In our world, school children don’t live in constant fear of nuclear bombs dropping out of the sky.

In our world, we don’t have to worry about the randomness of disease or the fear of moving to a TB colony.

In our world, we can hop into a car and know that there will be a motel or restaurant we can stop at along our journey.

In our world, we can heat up dinner in a microwave or order pizza in.

In our world, we can get caught up on the weather in the Bahamas or what our Uncle Bob posted on social media.

We’re connected. We’re mobile. We’re free and we’re entertained.

I mean really, when you compare the two generations you would think that our outlook for the future would be much better than those who lived in the 1950s. In fact, let me tell you what that generation wished for.

In an Associated Press article written in 1958, people predicted that “the telephone will be transformed from wire to radio and will be equipped with the visuality of television.” This would allow us to be able to talk to people anytime, anywhere.

They also said that, “In 2000 we shall be able to fly around the world in a day.” We’re close to that. (If you don’t count the space shuttle that can do it in 90 minutes.) The point was that the whole world could be our neighbors. As long as we were being neighborly.

They happily predicted there would be an end to hunger in the United States because advances in crop production would be so great it could easily feed twice the population! Well part of that’s right. The United States population then was 150 million. Today it’s about 315 million.

They were excited that “space platforms” (our satellites today) would end the Iron Curtain by “bringing the entire globe under constant surveillance.”

In today’s world our kids never go outside because they’re glued to the game console. In today’s world we covet our privacy because there’s too many ways we can be spied upon. In today’s world over half of our population is obese while the number of people suffering starvation steadily increases. In today’s world instead of eating at the dinner table, families have their heads glued to their phones checking their social media.

But back then, they predicted that if only these things happened, the world would be a much better place. And that people would be excited about their futures.

If we have everything they could ever wish for, then why aren’t we happier and more confident about tomorrow?

Maybe it’s not the stuff. Maybe it’s because back then 80 percent of the people said God was the most important thing in their lives. Be careful what you wish for because you’ll never know what you’ll lose. Let us pray. Our gracious God. Sometimes we confuse stuff with happiness. But we know true happiness can only come by trusting you. We ask that you be with us today so we can hope for a better tomorrow. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

The Blessings of Our Lord Jesus Christ Be With You!