Backyard Thoughts

 

As I often have done this spring and prior years, I've taken advantage of the nice weather and our back patio, sitting in a comfortable chair, watching the goings-on in Pawnee Prairie Park, which is immediately behind us.  We are on the back side of the park, but there is a developed trail about fifty feet behind our back fence that is used regularly and often.  Additionally, there is an entrance to the park about a hundred feet away that is used a lot by the neighborhood.  As I sit either on my lawn chair or on the glider swing, I notice the people  who pass by.  Young, old, men, women, kids, dogs, the occasional skateboard, bicycle, and even folks on horses go by.  Some are walking.  Others are running, jogging, bicycling, skating, and in even one case awhile back, unicycling.

Some are keeping fit.  Others are out to exercise their dogs.  Still others make it a family outing with dogs, kids, and the adults.  Some younger people are running, I think, because they are in some kind of high school or college sport and are keeping in shape.  It's a kind of eclectic bunch that go by our back yard...all sizes, weights, ages, genders, ethnicities, and whatever else might describe a very diverse group of humans.  Generally, they follow the rule of no motorized vehicles in the park, although sometimes the occasional moped or gasoline-powered bike makes it in.

As I watch people go by, I often wonder, especially when I see a young couple, a couple with a young family, or perhaps teens, what their older days will be like.  Many of those people will see the 2080's, 2090's, and even the turn of the century, depending on longevity and a host of other factors too numerous to mention here.  I see a good number of these same young people looking at their phones as they walk, using earbuds of some kind as they exercise, and even some doing the old-fashioned thing of visiting and talking with each other.  And I have to wonder just what it will be like for them, just as I wondered in the 1960's just what it would be like in 2000, 2010, and beyond.

I'll not speculate here on what technology, medical advances, transportation advances, and the development of alternate energy sources might be.  And space travel?  Well, we just have no idea, really, about any of this stuff.  So much depends on the condition of the world society in general, and individual societies in particular.  A lot rests on global warming, or lack thereof.  And, of course, things such as pandemics, revolutions, and the continuing specter of nuclear annihilation cause us to give pause to speculating on the future.

I really wonder if the post-Christian era will persist, or perhaps morph into something more sinister.  Or perhaps anti-Christian and anti-religion feelings will moderate or perhaps the pendulum will begin to swing the other way.

These young people are going into a future that is totally unknown, unknowable, and precarious to say the least.  Of course, the same could be said for any era of the past; however, it seems to me that as fast as the world is moving...as quickly as information multiplies nowadays...as much as those in charge of things refuse to look at the long term and concentrate instead on looking good and prospering in the short run...it bothers me to think that these young people are going to be the ones who will have to cope with whatever we older folks  have laid the foundation for, yesterday and today.

If God gives me length of days, I'll be lucky to see 2040.  In many ways, I'm content to NOT live until 2100...to not see the long term effects of some of the disastrous decisions we as a society and a world have already made and are being carried out.  I think there is wisdom in the plan of God to cause an eventual end of years in the current creation.  But I am concerned for those who will go after us...especially my children, grand children, and others I know and love who are young enough to see many more decades of life.

You may think I'm being overly-pessimistic and am really down on life and the future.  I'm not.  There may well be a renaissance of sorts and a social and spiritual awakening either sooner or later.  It's happened before, and can well happen again.  I am, however, trying to be realistic as we continue to interact with our own kids and are also present to be some influence on our grand kids.  They need to know that the future may indeed be unicorns and bunnies.  But they also need to know that the future could hold some of the more ominous things that have plagued mankind for untold centuries.  And they won't be immune just because of technological and scientific advances and knowledge.

So I pray for peace, tranquility, and quietness of life, just as Paul the Apostle told Timothy.  “Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.”  In times of the Roman Empire, this statement by Paul to Timothy is all the more exceptional.  And it applies equally to us as we all live out the length of days given by our Creator, whether those be short or long.