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March 23, 2009
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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================
Figuring Out the Future, by Rubel Shelly
We human beings are not very adept at predicting the future. Littered
along the highway of human history are countless bad guesses and failed
insights. The more often we speak with certainty, the more embarrassed
we are likely to be. "Everything that can be invented has been
invented," declared Charles H. Duell, the U.S. Commissioner of Patents.
That was in 1899.
Horace Rackham was advised by a president of the Michigan Savings Bank
not to invest in the Ford Motor Company in 1903. "The horse is here to
stay," he predicted, "but the automobile is only a novelty -- a fad."
Fortunately for Rackham, Henry Ford's attorney, he ignored the banker's
short-sightedness and bought $5,000 worth of stock. He sold it several
years later for $12.5 million.
In rejecting an aspiring band in 1962, Decca Records made this fearless
prophecy about its future in music. "We don't like their sound. Groups
of guitars are on the way out." Thus the company passed on signing the
Beatles. "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in
their home," said the president and founder of Digital Equipment
Corporation in 1977.
Clifford Roberts, founder of golf's prestigious Masters Tournament,
once said, "As long as I'm alive, golfers will be white, and caddies
will be black." He clearly didn't have the prescience to foresee either
the Civil Rights Movement or Tiger Woods' domination of the
professional tour.
All are beyond our ability to predict.
Humility will always be in order for us as we try to anticipate what
lies ahead. But are there no certainties about tomorrow? Is there
nothing on which to anchor our hope? Here are a couple of promises to
keep in mind in these stressful times.
Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love
of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39).
No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of
what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God
will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your
limit; he'll always be there to help you through it (1 Corinthians
10:13).
Markets and the future of global economies, music and other cultural
trends, breakthroughs in science and medicine -- all are beyond our
ability to predict. But the spiritual certainties based on God's sure
promises take the uncertainty out of today and let us move forward with
confidence.
If you want some confidence about the future, focus your attention on
the one person who actually knows something about it.
---------
(c) 2009 Used by permission. From Rubel Shelly <rshelly@rc.edu>'s
"FAX of Life" printed each Tuesday. See Faith Matters for
previous issues of the "FAX of Life."
RELATED LINKS:
* Planting Seeds for the Future
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200706/20070602_seeds.html
* Faith in the Future
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200810/20081008_infuture.html
* Future Gas Prices
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200901/20090114_gas.html
* RubelShelly.com
http://www.rubelshelly.com/
This article can be found on the web at:
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200903/20090323_figuringfuture.html
=========================== FEATURED PRODUCT =========================
THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS, by Billy Graham
Teaches us to live above the circumstances of life and rest in the true
happiness God wants us to have.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?251
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