There was a time – more than 20 years ago – that I wanted to be Amish.

Just to provide some evidence for that statement – it’s a fact that my wife and I have 8 children, all born at home, all homeschooled.  I abandoned my career in educational technology to be a construction worker.  To work with my “…hands and live in peace with all men.” We still don’t own a TV.

These ideas were influenced by a book written by Jerry Mander entitled In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and The Survival of Indian Nations, and other books like: Francis Schaefer’s How Should We Then Live, and Early History of The Christian Church, Birth Without Violence, The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman and others.

I thought that earlier generations were closer to the Truth, and that society needed to return to some ideal, fundamental belief and lifestyle that was in the past.

During that same time, some friends and I were attempting to follow closely the model of the New Testament Church as depicted in the Bible – meeting house to house, and sharing some (not all) of what we had.

By studying the past I believed, subconsciously, that I could be certain about how we “should” live.

I see now that it was the certainty that I was wanting.  I wanted the answers, and I wanted to be right.

But the only thing we can be certain of is the past.

For some of us, this was the underlying motive of Bible study.  That is, studying the Bible in search of historical patterns that we can apply to the present (and future) – with a high degree of certainty.

Of course, God is eternal. God is in the eternal – that is beyond time – outside the past or future.

Today, I am considering the possibility that the eternal God – The I AM, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End is not confined to the past, to history, to nostalgia – He is not confined to the stories of the Bible.  He is not instructing us from behind,  but rather calling to us from the future.

I am imagining Jesus’ prayer about the kingdom coming on earth… as it is in Heaven, to be an invitation to participate with Him in creating the future here on earth.

“What if it is true,” I ask myself?

What if God is calling to us from the future – inspiring us to cooperate with His Spirit to immerse the earth in the culture of His kingdom?

What if God is ready to provide the insight, wisdom, revelation, strategy, and ideas necessary to create organizations, communities, and businesses that are aligned to the culture of Heaven?

What if God’s insights, revelations, strategies, and ideas fostered the development of new technologies, and advancements that optimized the human experience in ways that make the “abundant life,” that Jesus said he came to bring, a reality?

What would the future look like if we began to inquire of the Spirit about ways in which we could re-imagine and re-create the economy to align with the economy of God’s kingdom? An economy based on abundance.

Could it be that God wants to encourage you to re-imagine, and re-create your business in a form that coheres with His kingdom’s ideals, goals, attitudes, and values?

How can you be certain?

What would the future look like if courageous business owners began to embrace uncertainty? The uncertainty of the future? The uncertainty that requires faith?  Faith to create the future?

Categories: Blog

Tags: Amish, Generative King Archetype, Kingdom of God, On earth as in Heaven, Rob Bell, Thy Kingdom Come, What We Talk About When We Talk About God