Envisioning a Better Future

 How do you feel about the future? Many people fear how our world’s current troubles will play out, and every day gives us fresh material for anxiety. If we preoccupy ourselves with these things, our future will be covered with a pall. But what if we ponder possible solutions?

The Smithsonian Institution just completed an exhibition called “Futures,” which asked visitors what issues worry them most and invited them to think creatively about how to deal with them. The 650,000 respondents named issues like climate change, war, political conflict, and famine. They saw no relief from these problems in the future.

After touring the exhibition, their outlook changed. “An incredible 77 percent of people reported feeling more hopeful about the future after seeing FUTURES. A similarly overwhelming majority of 80 percent reported being inspired to take action,” The Smithsonian Magazine reported. Curators of the exhibit aimed to make it a kind of “mental time machine.” Reporter Rachel Goslins said, “The more concretely you can envision the details of a possible future, the more hopeful you feel about its possibility…”

I think that exhibit should challenge us as Christian writers. We can cast an alternate vision of the future in which people take practical steps to change systemic problems. Our readers don’t need magical thinking; they need realistic hope. And we can use the vehicle of fiction to take them there. 

Charles Sheldon's In His Steps is a classic example. Sheldon gives us an honest picture of hectic, self-centered city life, then invites us to consider how that picture would change if we did what Jesus would do. His "mental time machine" shows us an inspiring yet plausible future, based on that simple premise.

We should be futurists in the best sense of that word. We worship and serve the Lord of the future, so our work should point readers to a hopeful, faithful future.

Joe Allison writes both fiction and nonfiction, and has been a member of the Indiana chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers since 2010. His most recent book is Hard Times (Warner Press: 2019). He lives in Anderson, IN, with his wife Maribeth.