Do you ever find yourself concerned about the future? Think about your choices and how those choices will impact your future life? I do. I know that to some degree, I think differently than most in that I take a long view of things. That is probably due to the fact that I am a historian. Or maybe everyone thinks this way; in any case, I often find myself struggling to make long-term decisions as I ponder the various possible implications.
I remember a conversation with a friend. We discussed the value of decisions that could be made relative to the church that was emerging around my wife and I. I expressed my worry about the future impact of our current decisions. I then told him that I was hoping to avoid similar mistakes that other church leaders had made in the past, hoping to avoid taking Numinous to the same place as others before. In other words, I want to avoid mistakes that 300 years from now could be disastrous.
He laughed heartily at me and asked, “How do you sleep at night?” He then went on to chide me, stating that in reality I could not control what would happen in the future. Well, though he may be right in one sense, as a historian, I believe strongly in the need for people to make wise, critical decisions based on as long a view as possible. Think of that as the “Chess Players View of Decisions.” The great chess players have the ability to see the board played out in their head many, many moves ahead of where they currently are. I strive to be that kind of person.
However, I suppose there is a point where that cautious approach is taken too far. Often, I find myself somewhat frozen with indecision as I consider what step to take. Many times I am afraid of all choices, so I do nothing. But the other day, I read something in one of my favorite books that really encouraged me.
During a discussion in The Lord of the Rings (Return of the King, p. 155) Gandalf the wizard is counseling the leaders of the war against the chief of evil—Sauron. Gandalf tells them that their hope does not lie in fighting and war, but in removing his chief power—his one ring. So, knowing that the hobbit Frodo is at that moment heading toward the only place possible to destroy the ring, Gandalf says that if Frodo is successful, then Sauron will fall and so great will his fall be, that “a great evil of this world will be removed.”
But then he goes on with an interesting thought:
Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What whether they shall have is not ours to rule.
In other words, you can’t attempt too hard to plan for protection from the evils of future years, but can only take care of the evil that is around you now! How it all works out with Numinous, church, spirituality and the rest in centuries to come will be the responsibility of those people. What happens for the USA in centuries to come will be impacted by our decisions of this day, but those citizens at that time will have to deal with the evil of their time, whether foreign or domestic.
When J.R.R. Tolkien was writing Lord of the Rings, the world was wracked with the violence of World War II. Tolkien himself had served in the trenches of World War I and seen the negative impact upon his fellows who had returned with him. The point is pretty obvious in that we can only concern ourselves with the decisions, the evil, in front of us and we have to let go to a large degree and count on God’s larger plan to carry the day.
It certainly seems that we are, as a nation, facing some sort of struggle, perhaps an evil inherent within ourselves. At the least, we are struggling with one another about what kind of underlying philosophy should guide us forward, to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Maybe no political viewpoint is completely right as we confront questions of health care, terrorism, environmental issues, illegal immigration or internal infrastructure deterioration. Yet, these issues and others seem capable of tearing us apart and presenting the possibility of darker days ahead for the country. What do we do?
Well, the future will be what it is, impacted certainly by our choices, but in that future, “our posterity” will have to deal with that as they do. We must make the same determination that Aragorn makes in that council; to go forward to the final confrontation with Sauron. Will they prevail? He does not know, but he does know that he can act with valor and wisdom. He can act in the belief that other forces are also at work.
As Gandalf said earlier to Frodo, there is a greater power at work in the world than just the power of evil, and “that is a very comforting thought, indeed.”