What is coming in 2024… well we see in part, and are tainted by our own biases and desires. If we focus on the ‘church’ and cannot see beyond that we might well come up with something along the lines of ‘the year of breakthrough’… I am of course convinced we have to see beyond those four walls, and in my preference for the term ‘body of Christ’ I consider that the wider world is our responsibility – of course I want to avoid over-responsibility and to hold on to an ability to laugh. It is not easy to be truly responsible at a level that is real and can make a wider difference if one loses the ability to laugh.
I made a 15 minute video earlier this month on what I see at the core for 2024:
In it (don’t you love the way that the opening frame makes one look highly intelligent with mouth open!! I know I can change it but I need to be able to laugh, after all I once tried to spell ‘professionalism’ but realised it was a step to far)… anyway in it I say that I see 2024 being a major pivotal year and that at a global level we will either have everything in place by the end of the year as the ‘seeds’ for global war or we can see a shift toward a genuine different kind of future. [Whether one belives the future is fixed or not our prayer has to be ‘on earth as in heaven’ and I think any kind of passivity that comes from ‘it has all been prophesied’ is illegitimate… and the warning to beware of those who say ‘peace, peace’ makes total sense in the Roman first century context of the Pax Romana.]
In the video I say that actual war between China and Taiwan will be held back this year, but that with a focus shifting to the far east there will be actual conflict over ‘disputed islands’. Yesterday I came across this in the BBC website on North Korea and potential ocnflict with South Korea:
This could even be in the form of shelling or attempted occupation of contested islands west of the Korean peninsula (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68052515).
I don’t quote this to prove I am right – I would rather be wrong and the global scene moves in a positive direction, but quote it as I also suggested that at a personal level ‘disputed islands’ (or as the article calls them ‘contested islands’ will be threatened). This follows a focus in the latter half of last year into the fairly extensive biblical material on boundaries. So leaving the global aside, the personal is important at two levels – important for us and also if we can shift things at a personal level it automatically gives a leverage into the global beyond us.
This post then is simply an encouragement to not stop at ‘silver and gold I do not have’ but to also go on to ‘but what I have / been entrusted with’. Contested! Maybe also some prayer that takes us deeper than simply declaring what is ‘ours’ to prepare me to be able to better steward what is mine within the boundaries that have been set for me.