If you’re a Christian you’re just a shadow of your future self.”
— N.T. Wright
There is a picture my Dad posted on my Facebook page of me when I was 25 years old. I was 5’11”, 142 pounds, and had a very large amount of hair on my head.
Truth be told, I thought I knew all the answers to every question.
Forty years later, age has shrunk my height a little, expanded my weight a little more, and reduced my hair a lot more.
And I have learned that often I don’t even know the question.
At 25, I would not have guessed I would be where I am today. At 65, I cannot imagine being anywhere else.
At 25, I lived in the shadow of who I am now. At 65, the shadow I cast includes that 25-year-old me, as well as all the years in-between. But my life now is already a shadow of who I am to become.
It is a paradox. I cast the shadow of my past, but I am making the shadow cast by my future. My life, my actions, my decisions, my relationships with God and others, are all in the shadows of the past.
And they are making the shadows created by my future self.
Stand boldly in the light. Cast a God-sized shadow.
