Practice The Future

[God] has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

My cat does not think about what will happen when his food bowl is empty. He gets up every morning and eats. If there’s nothing in the bowl, he bugs me until I fill it. God has not “planted eternity” in his heart.

Being ignorant of the future and taking things only as they come along—like my cat—is foolhardy. On the flip side, forecasting the future is only making an educated guess concerning what might happen at a given point.

How can you prepare for an uncertain future?

I encourage leaders to “practice the future” by playing “what if” games:

• What if our largest supplier shuts down?
• What if we grow by 30 percent in the next five years?
• What if the government bans our products or services?

Perhaps God gives us a glimpse of the future so we are compelled to trust him with the details we’re not allowed to see.