Even better than traveling backwards, what if we could travel forward into the unknown future? Now that’s different isn’t it? To me, the future seems to be way more of a sensitive subject than the past. At least we can read about events before our time in history books. Maybe it isn’t the past that makes us feel like we’re missing out. It’s the future we’re concerned about. That’s why kings and queens of old built monuments or even fought wars; hoping they could save up some form of glory that would carry their legacy into the future. Still, our time is limited. And while some of us may be remembered, no one gets to see it all. That’s why we hate death.

No one wants to die. Dying means we miss out.

But what if there’s a legitimate reason why stories of time travel are so visceral? so connected to the core of who we are? What if we are suppose to be a people of more than the present? Maybe we are suppose to be a people of the future.

A people of the future?

Too often, Christians have made the mistake of thinking of the future as Heaven and Heaven alone. When I read Revelation 21 and 22, I see something more…

Not just Heaven…A new Heaven…A new Earth…A brand new Creation…In the Biblical Scriptures, Jesus’ resurrection caused a collision between the past, the present, and the future. There was a sort of overlap between Heaven and Earth; God’s time and our time; God’s future and our present. I know this sounds confusing, but I like to think of it this way…

Whenever my family rings in the New Year on the east coast, my brother always insists on calling our family out west (in a different time zone) to tell them “Happy New Year from the future!” Similarly, as a new day dawns in the east before the west, Jesus’s resurrection marked a new day. And while Jesus was the first to awake in this new reality, he is calling all of us who are “out west” to wake up as well. We are no longer a people of the present day. Those who have risen with Christ have been baptized into a new day. We are a people of the future and we must begin living like it.

Now the question remains: What does it look like to live as a people of the future?

Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. In other words, the future is at hand. If all we ever believe is that the world will burn while we wait for our future in Heaven, we’re doing way more harm than good. The way we think about our future dramatically effects the way we live in the present. Our eschatology matters. So, we must begin with the end in mind.

NT Wright says it this way in his book “Surprised by Hope,”