The one who goes ahead

What reassures you as you look ahead to the future?

One certainty is that the future is uncertain. A few decades ago, who imagined the havoc that an invisible virus could wreak? Few of us expected Brexit or the rapid ascent of China. Who would have anticipate Boris Johnson comparing climate change to a ticking Doomsday bomb in a James Bond film? The unpredictability of our climate makes looking ahead scary as our news screens alternate with footage of floods and fires. Our climate is sick and it remains to be seen whether we are too selfish to give it the medicine it needs.  

And what about for us as individuals? Turn a corner in life and what you meet may not fit your neat agenda. What helps us as we look ahead? 

We know the One who goes ahead.  

We know the One who goes ahead even when we have failed him. Jesus told his disciples at Gethsemane, “You will deny me but I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”  Jesus goes ahead to lead us away from the place of failure to the place of empowering.

Jesus goes ahead to lead us home to the Father. We know the One described as the Forerunner, who went ahead to lead us all the way to the throne of grace.  Every day, we can follow him into the Father’s embrace.   

As I look back over the cataclysmic change of past years, I can see how God went ahead of us. The picture is of the Long Water in Home Park; I walked there last week and was reminded that my Shepherd goes ahead to lead us by still waters.

I need reminding of that because sometimes when I look ahead into the unknown, I imagine the worst. I need reminding that the risen Lord Jesus goes ahead to stand between us and the dark scenarios that we fear. The one who went ahead of us through the destruction of death for us has made a way for us to live forever and we can trust that the end of the story is joy. 

And in the meantime, the Lord goes ahead to take us to where we need to go – sometimes to still waters, always to new adventures and new missions. Jesus is to be trusted with what is ahead because he goes ahead.  

Even when the future ahead looks hazy, Jesus knows the way. God went ahead of his people to guide them through the wilderness into the Promised Land and he will guide us through this wilderness world to enter into his wonderful promises for us. The question is whether we will follow. 

It is tempting to try and camp in the past, to enshrine the old and to settle for less but Jesus goes ahead to lead us ahead.

So, eyes up, heart and mind set – on the One who goes ahead.