What future awaits me?

By Klaus Döring

Your future is unwritten. No one can see what will happen. Your choices, actions, and daily habits shape the path ahead of you.

Today, leave the negative behind. I am surrounded by so many negative-thinking people. No wonder!

A bright and positive future is waiting for you, so keep moving forward.

A long time ago, in a land far away, my principal would say, “Keep moving forward!” every single day in the morning announcements. My classmates and I would roll our eyes and mumble something about it being annoying. Then we’d go through our day, moving forward.

It may have taken some time (and some growing up) to understand the full meaning behind those three simple words.

Keep moving forward.

If this was the only advice I ever received again in my life, I think it would be enough.

You quit your job because you’re tired of your coworkers and your boss. But now what do you do? You keep moving forward.

You just made a commitment to buying a new house, but your financing fell through, and now you are out part of your savings. But you have to keep moving forward.

You lost a family member or a close friend. There’s nothing you can do except move forward.

But that doesn’t mean you forget everything in your past. It doesn’t mean you ignore it. It means you focus on yourself; it means you send out your resume and apply for the job you’ve always wanted; it means you find somewhere to live for a while until you have enough money saved up again to get the house you want; it means you grieve but remember that person will always be in your heart.

How does this apply to your life now? Is there some negativity in your life? A shadow falling in a corner of your mind? Maybe something consuming your thoughts, blocking out everything else? It might be something small, but that doesn’t mean it’s not affecting you.

Make today the day that you leave that shadow behind. Open up your heart and your mind. There IS a bright and positive future awaiting you, but YOU have to be the one to move forward in order to find it. The future is your tomorrow, but if you stay where you are, you will never find it.

I guess, in light of all these fearful emotions and overwhelming questions about the future, it is pretty fitting that God has recently placed Jeremiah 29:11 on my heart. It goes like this: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Even in the moments when you feel like you are aimlessly wandering, searching for the right path but unable to find it, trust that you are not aimless. You are aiming for heaven, and everything before that is just preparing you for this future hope of perfection.

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Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook, X (Twitter), or LinkedIn, or visit www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.