Flashforward

I missed the first episode, but my mother being an avid sci-fi, and fiction fan, quickly caught me up on the happening of the first episode. The new show I am talking about is Flashforward. In the first episode everyone around the world blacks out for thirty seconds and has a vision of what their life will be like in exactly six months (I think that is the time frame). These are not generic visions of say, oh I live in Seattle and have a dog, they are specific visions of, I am talking to Joe while eating a ginger muffin in the late afternoon watching a ford mustang come to a stop at a stop light. Some individuals have great visions, some have scary visions, some have confusing visions, and other have none - hence they die within the next six months. The first episode apparently showed the visions of the main characters. Tonight I watched the second episode.

The second episode began with two of the main characters, who happen to work for the FBI, talking about the confusion the world is experiencing. A man in a group they are attending starts venting and says, "They say we are supposed to live our lives one day at a time, but how am I supposed to do that with the future breathing down my neck?" he continues to say that, "Everyday just seems to bring me closer to my vision, and no one has any answers. none of you." Another of the main characters responds with, "Look at these people every one of them is dealing with the same thing we are - the future."  This sparked a very clear thought in my mind.

I am an individual that likes to plan in advance. I like to know what my future will hold. At least my immediate future. I would love to know if I will get the job that I want, or if I will have to take a different job. I would love to know how long the process will take, when I will get to move out, and so forth. However, I am a planner, and God is a planner. Normally life doesn't work too well when two people are leading and no one is following. I am to surrender my life, wholly, every aspect, to the divine plan of our loving Father. If I am truly doing that then my plans should not be set in stone, but I should be able to move and change my plans with the leading of the Spirit. Not saying that we should not be hard working, planning people, just that we need to be listening to the leading of the Spirit in our lives.  All that to say that I am a person who often times worry about what tomorrow will hold, what the day will entail, and how I can best prepare for it.

The show Flashforward has everyone in the world trying to figure out what their vision meant, and for many people how to change the course of their life to create a different future. It has them worried, anxious, scared, and confused. That is when it hit me. So often in scripture the Lord tells us not to worry about tomorrow. Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Again in James 4:14 " Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." In Luke 12:28 God promises us that we need not worry, because He will take care of us. "If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!"

This also had me thinking about the rapture and the second coming. The whole concept of the world blacking out at the same time is a little similar in concept to the rapture. Combining the theme of the rapture with the knowledge that these people have of the future reminded me of why we are not supposed to know the time of the rapture nor the second coming. We are supposed to live everyday to its fullest, and to keep watch because we can know the season that they will occur in. As Matthew 25:13 says, "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour." Matthew 24:36 says, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." If we were to know the day and time the world would probably fall into a chaotic state and a panic would ensue. Now I understand why we are not meant to know. Thanks fiction T.V. I appreciate you helping me understand scripture even more!