A man went in for his annual checkup and received a phone call from his physician a couple of days later. The doctor said, “I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”  “What’s the news?” the man asked. “Well, you have only 48 hours to live.” “O, no, that is bad news!” said the shocked patient. “Yes, and I’m afraid I have even worse news,” the doctor continued. “What could be worse than what you’ve already told me?” the patient stammered. “I’ve been trying to call you since yesterday!" exclaimed the doctor. 

As I listen to most preaching and teaching, read the best selling Christian books, and engage the typical American Christian in conversation, especially since the outcome of the national election on November 6, I come away with the sinking feeling that there is only bad news, and the expectation of even worse things in the future. They all feel, for the most part, that the end for America, and probably the world, is even closer than the bad news suggests!

This outlook on life makes for an extremely serious problem that I call “Short-termism”! This word is defined in the dictionary as a financial term: "the tendency to focus attention on short-term gains, often at the expense of long-term success or stability." Almost every definition the dictionaries give relates to financial investing. However, I think it is also a faith, or lack of it, term and an apt description of the mentality of far too many Christians. Ours is a short-term culture that has a microwave, rather than a marinating, approach to life. Christians who first came on the shores of America saw themselves as a “Bridge-building Generation – connecting the biblical heritage of the past to the biblical hope of the future. Christians, as a whole in America today, see themselves as a part of the Terminal Generation. Their confession is that of prophecy specialist, Hal Lindsey, who said, “We must live as a people who don’t expect to be around for much longer.”

In American Christianity we have recovery programs for every type of bondage -- alcohol, drugs, gambling, sexual addictions, etc. But I declare that what we really need is a massive biblical recovery program from “short-termism" that will re-establish us as a germinal, bridge-building, people of faith, rather than as a terminal, the bridge for the future is washed out and there’s no way out but up type of people!

The thoughts for this article are taken from Jeremiah 29. The year is 597 BC and King Nebuchadnezzar had carried Jerusalem’s ruling elite off to Babylon, which is about 56 miles out of modern day Baghdad (read Jer. 29:1-2). The Babylonians had trashed the city and treated the people as animals. They broke down the defensive walls of Jerusalem, ransacked and burned their temple, destroyed their economy, and enslaved their people -- transporting to Babylon several hundred thousand of the best, youngest and most gifted of the people.

What should God’s people do when awakened to find themselves with a Babylonian zip code? It is tempting to retreat and withdraw, to pull back from the surrounding culture, or maybe to try to escape it altogether. Yet Jeremiah 29 tells the people of God to do exactly the opposite. This must have come as a total shock to the exiles living in Babylon.  Everything the Babylonians stood for was hateful to God and Jews had every reason to hate them -- after all the Babylonians had destroyed their holy city, killed their friends and family members, and now they were living in slavery and captivity 900 hundred miles from home. In seeking answers from God, they might have expected Him to tell them to become cloistered recluses in Babylon, or to run away, or to start a revolution.  What God does instead is tell them to become long-term thinkers and planners, and not short-term haters of their enemies and remain hopeless and homeless; to be generational and not terminal in their planning.

Christians today, find themselves, for the most part, cultural captives in a Babylonian type system. This being true, what should God’s people do? Should they just wait to be raptured out of the mess by continuing to meet, eat and retreat in little groups called churches? Should they start a guerilla warfare campaign to throw the pagan rascals out and get us back to our roots? We would do well to hear and begin to heed the message of Jeremiah 29, as the God-authorized prophet tells the covenant people of God to become workers and not just waiters; to become future-oriented, long term thinkers and planners, and not short term haters of their enemies, who criticize and curse the darkness, remaining hopeless and homeless; to be generational and not terminal in their planning. This message from God through his Prophet, Jeremiah, is just as needed in 21^st Century America as it was in 6^th Century Israel.

Short-termism, in American Christianity, has brought us into a state of bondage, paralysis, cultural impotence, fear and despair. A poll regularly conducted of college freshman asks, "Do you think your future will be filled with success?" More than 95 percent say, "I will be successful." The second question is, "Do you think the country will be successful?" Only 55 percent think so; the third question is, "Do you think the world will be successful?" Only 25 percent think so. These attitudes are like having a first-class ticket on the Titanic, but expecting it to sink.

Samuel Morison opens his 1942 biography on Christopher Columbus by observing, "At the end of the year 1492 most men in Western Europe felt exceedingly gloomy about the future. Christian civilization appeared to be shrinking in area and dividing into hostile units as its sphere contracted. For over a century there had been no important advance in natural science, and registration in the universities dwindled as the instruction they offered became increasingly immature and lifeless. Institution s were decaying, well-meaning people were growing cynical or desperate, and many intelligent men, for want of something better to do, were endeavoring to escape the present through the study of the pagan past. Islam was now expanding at the expense of Christendom. . . . The Ottoman Turks (all Muslims), after snuffing out all that remained of the Byzantine Empire, had overrun most of Greece, Albania and Serbia; presently they would be hammering at the gates of Vienna, Austria.”

Sound familiar? Change 1492 to 2012 and the above description of the world of Columbus would fit just as well today. All the major characters and signs are once again in place, or so it seems.

A study of hospital patients in relationship to their life expectancy came to the conclusion that there was a strong correlation between life expectancy and future oriented thinking. A man whose mind looked ahead to activities a year hence was more likely to live than one whose thinking was only in terms of the daily hospital routine. Those without a future in mind had no future, as a rule. Short-termism is a deadly mentality that affects every area of life.

May I remind you dear readers that the hope for the future isn’t in leaving this Babylonian type world, or in throwing out the rascals who run it and replacing them with a few good men! The hope for the future isn’t just good works that the city needs, but in gospel good works. The Bible says we have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).  The only basis for real and lasting shalom is the work of Christ on the cross.  The city cannot be at peace until the city knows Jesus Christ crucified.  In its sin, the city is at war with God, and thus it deserves his wrath and curse.  But Jesus Christ came to make peace between God and humanity.

Irrespective of what city we are in and how pagan it is, there is one Man who is righteous enough to save it and anyone in it.  He was a Man who loved to go up to Jerusalem for worship. The Man I am talking about loved to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, often with tears in his eyes (see Luke 13:34-35; 19:41-46). This Man did just come to pray for peace, however; he also came to bring it.  His prayers went beyond the people who were already in the kingdom of God to include people who were outsiders. He came, the Bible says, to preach peace to people who were near and peace to people who were far off (see Eph. 2:17).

Do you know this Man?  He is the same Man who kept the promise in Psalm 122:9 perfectly: “For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.” Yes, that Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, pursued the peace of Jerusalem. He did it by going up to the holy city and then out to the city dump where he was crucified on a Roman cross and then arose again on the third day. This is the basis for any true and lasting peace with God -- the shalom of the cross.  Now the same Man has sent us to the city to establish a presence for Him; to seek its good and pray for its peace.  Will you pray for, work for, and witness for the peace of Augusta, of New York, of Tokyo, of Mexico City, of Jerusalem, of Saudi Arabia in Jesus’ name? Will you ask Father to deliver you from despair and short-termism so that you become germinal instead of terminal?

As for me, I am committing to praying for the President instead of putting down the President. I am committing to promoting real Gospel hope, not doom and gloom. I am committing to focus on the present Gospel needs of people with a view toward future glory, not selfish escapism that wishes future glory would come sooner. I am committing to reducing my offenses so that the offense of the Gospel will take center stage. Will you join me?