The Gospel according to Matthew: How to Predict Your Own Future

I have preached for years that everything is connected … not only is our past intrinsically tied to our present and future but we are tied to one another … we are connected whether we like it or not, whether you agree or not it is a fact. We may not CHOOSE to acknowledge and take advantage of that connectivity, even leverage that connectivity.  We may not choose to utilize that connectivity, we may not listen and learn from that connectivity but like it or not, everything is connected, it is there … if you think about it.

I'll even bet that like me, you can identify specific moments in your life when you made a decision (not did the deed but decided to DO the deed ... that point of no return) leave home, get a job, date someone, take something (pills alcohol anything), deliver an ultimatum to your boss, buy that car, truck, house, furniture … that INSTANT, I'll bet you can identify that instant which set in motion what would occur in your future … and the breakup, bankruptcy, car problems, job search, illness , recovery that you experienced is directly connected to the instant you said “imma do this ...” despite your girlfriend saying "I wouldn't say that to my supervisor if I were you" or your best friend saying “hey dude, wrong chick, wrong time man” or mama saying “that credit card is a BAD idea” or daddy saying “SERIOUSLY a Chevy?” for summa y'all that same Chevy backseat where you shared another bad idea LOL LOL … but all of this has a point … we can predict our own future and if you refuse to admit you can predict your OWN future, I'll bet you've “seen it coming” for someone else LOL and probably TOLD them so (with an ever so slight amount of glee) LOL.

I should have seen this coming or YOU should have seen this coming … how many times have we heard “I don't understand how he just broke up with me, I don't understand what happened with this relationship and we are sitting back thinking REALLY? We saw this coming three months ago or my favorite “Why am I always broke?” and EVERYONE around you is thinking “did I just hear you ask that question? How is that even possible that you don't know the answer?" Why can we see what they can't see … and why are our friends and family always able to say “I tried to warn you” --- some of it is perspective, you are pulling out from between two parked cars into the path of a truck but you can't see it … I across the street CAN see and I'm thinking “oh sh*t this is bad” … from my perspective I see it coming ….you actually DO NOT see it coming ... BUT there's more... yep, you STILL shoulda seen it coming .... 

Some of it (the part that is going to get your car smashed) is “prediction” based on experience … we've been there, we've seen someone do it before so we are better able (from our perspective) to see the truck coming or to make the connection “uh, oh yeah, I remember what happens when I do that” so we pretty much know what's going to happen when YOU do that same thing, in the same way and usually around the same age as we did LOL. It's the connection … to the past, present and future AND to one another.

But the thing I'm onto right now is our OWN predictors … a lot of times it's us … we have that little niggle “this is not my best moment” “do I REALLY want to do this?” I remember that moment clearly standing on the New River bridge one year strapped through the crotch and around my ankles by a rubber band … thinking "this is a very bad idea" ... CLEARLY and IF I'd splattered on the rocks below (which thankfully I did not) and lived I would have said “yep, I saw that sh*t coming” …. my gut warned me and I …... did …... not ….. listen. Again, thankfully, God wasn't quite finished with me yet LOL. Oh, oh, better yet, men. COUNTLESS times I have looked forward (based on my past) and said “this is wrong on so many levels” “this is a bad bad idea” and did it again anyway not LISTENING to MY OWN VOICE ... same time line months, years later “I knew it! I saw that coming a year ago” … and so it goes but how does this happen? How do we get so broken, so lost, so fast and seemingly "don't see it coming" when we should have? And worse, it's 100% avoidable and I'll get to that ...

Perhaps a bigger question is how do we get unlost before we get lost? Wouldn't that be nice?  Just hit the "back" key or "play again" ... but we don't know we are lost until we are paying the price.  Because the truth of the matter is we might be happy as lark, everything is going fine, got jobs, making money, having fun, got friends, and the next day it seems like the bottom drops out. Same way driving you are enjoying the scenery, or perhaps daydreaming and many miles and minutes later you have no earthly idea where you are … but when did you become lost? If you knew the instant you got lost you could just a) jump off and turn around or b) not get lost (see the irony).

A friend recently ended up in Athens GA trying to get to Stone Mountain (I don't have a CLUE how he did that LOL) but it was a drive he'd made dozens of times before and he said “I must have turned the wrong way on 29 or 124 or maybe it was when …..” he had no idea and at no point was he even concerned, just driving along lost in thought, until he noticed the “Athens 5 miles” sign never even realized he was GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. If it's that easy to get lost with road signs every mile and traffic patterns screaming “why is everyone going when I'm coming”, with billboards telling you exactly where you are and where you can get a Whopper Jr. or Big Mac imagine how easy it is to get lost on life's journey.

In life, by the time you REALIZE you're lost, by the time the consequences of your actions come home to roost, it's too late, you are already lost.  But you don't need a fix, you cannot fix yourself, you're not broken ... you need a new direction.  Your life, your day to day existence and happiness are not objects that can be glued back together ... they are the culimination of paths that you take in life, the right or wrong turns you made ... you need a new direction.

We arrive at that dark spot divorce, addiction, homelessness, bankruptcy, even facing jail and we want a solution, a fix “how do I fix this?” First, that's the wrong question .. the right question is where do I want to go from here. How do I get from here to WHERE I SHOULD BE? 

We get to where we SHOULD be exactly the same way we got to where we SHOULDN'T be … your driving along on a Sunday afternoon and look up realizing you're lost. You don't go to the country store and say I'm lost I need to be fixed … you ask for directions. We get back to where we belong by taking a new direction.

Second, anyone who says "well to fix this" ... run... or “if you'll do x, y and z” things will be better ... nope, nope, nope don't listen.  We don't need to be “fixed”.  What we ARE is what we take with us REGARDLESS of where we go ... it's the path we are choosing to walk that has gotten us so lost.  The warnings we failed to heed, the lessons we chose to ignore, the poor choices we made by failing to listen ... even to our own still small voice.  We can't be FIXED. We are far too complex and our lives are far too intertwined to be “fixed”. 

Following do x, y and z, the situation might get better (or not), it might get better for a while but chances are it won't because the person telling you how to "fix" yourself is not you. They are not in your moccasins, they don't know YOUR pain, YOUR dilemma, your personal CONNECTION to the situation. What you need is a new direction, a new path. You need to move and live in a new direction.  Find the kind of person you want to be, the life you want to live, the legacy you want to leave behind and literally LIVE in that direction.  While you are building the foundation of your life is NOT the time to go all "I don't give a f*ck"  THAT is how you become lost. 

The question remains how do we become unlost? What is the path we should take ... we know that we don't all take the same path yet some people are just fine they are happy, they have purpose, their lives have meaning regardless of how rich or poor, where they live, what they do for a living so where is the connection ... what do they have in common and how do WE find our OWN PATH, our OWN DIRECTION ... the one that will bring us happiness, that will fulfill us, sustain us, let us grow and thrive? 

Well oh what a shock ... Jesus left us a roadmap ... pages and pages of words that He spoke here on earth before sealing a New Covenant between God and all of mankind by conquering death before hundreds of eyewitnesses that documented these events.  And Matthew recorded the story that Jesus told, the parable that lays it out for us and He tells us to literally predict our own future at the end of that sermon.  

And even if you don't believe the Bible and not everyone does ... in fact a lot of people who DO believe the Bible don't read it and if they read it, they still don't follow Jesus, instead they follow "at it", they go to church on Sunday long enough to feel bad about themselves, feel guilty then go home and watch the game.  A lot of people have lost faith, they've followed the wrong path and are wondering WTF happened? Where am I? How did I get here? HOW DO I FIX THIS? and when they can't "fix it" they lose faith, they give up ... instead of finding the right directions to a fulfilled life right there in the Bible they no longer read.

BUT even if you don't believe Jesus is who He says He is, He STILL gave us instructions on how to live a great life, where we can feel whole, not hungry, empty and searching.  And in His final parable at the Sermon on the Mount he tell us EXACTLY how to find that path … how to predict our own future ... if we'd bother to listen. 

He makes it EASY for us to be happy … which begs the question (for me) why would ANYONE not WANT to follow Him? If the proven result is what it purports to be who would choose NOT to follow this path ... even if you don't follow the man, the Savior, and accept Him as Lord and Master heeding His advice, solid advice, just makes sense!!

But the story is … the path is described as Jesus closes out His Sermon on the Mount as written down by Matthew several years after Matthew was an eye-witness to Jesus' resurrection. and I will revise this post later and add that parable breaking it down item by item and word by word from it's Middle Eastern text/translation so it's “relevant” to … what year is this? LOL sooo.... to be continued.