On July 1, 1898, the United Kingdom began a 99 year lease of what is now known as Hong Kong from China. The lease expired on June 30, 1997. For decades the families living in Hong Kong were very well aware of the end date of the lease. Some families began putting money aside many decades before 1997. There were individuals who began putting money aside, not for their own departure from Hong Kong, not for their children’s departure from Hong Kong, not even for their grandchildren’s departure, but for their great-grandchildren’s departure! They began saving for people whose parents hadn’t even been born yet!
That is thinking generations ahead! That is thinking beyond themselves.
When God established His covenant with Abram (Abraham) in Genesis 15 he tells Abram through a dream that his descendants were going to be enslaved for 400 years but then they would come out of the slavery and experience God’s blessing.
I may have forgotten some things about when the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians, and I’ve not gone back and reread the entire account before Moses led them out of Egypt. I do remember the Israelites complaining about being slaves. I do not remember ever reading about the Israelites ever comforting each other and saying, ‘Just 321 years to go and our descendants will be free and experience God’s blessing!’ I could be wrong.
I once heard someone say that the Church is the only organization that exists for those who are not in it. Once they get in, it no longer is about them, it remains about those who are not yet in.
The question I’ve been wrestling with lately, Am I living with my own end in mind, or am I living with the end in mind of people I’ve not yet met? Am I investing in someone else’s future, someone I don’t yet know, or am I trying to make the world about me, my comfort, my preferences?
It is my prayer that I can live a life that is so farsighted that I make decisions that will positively impact people generations ahead.
