Back to the Future, Tenet, Déjà vu, Terminator. For decades, Hollywood has been obsessed with time travel. As a genre, these movies explore various avenues of the same reality: to act in the past is to re-shape the future.
Time is not a new fascination. In the 4th century, Augustine was positing odd queries like “If future and past events exist, I want to know where they are” and mind-bending observations like “[The present] flies so quickly from future into past that it is an interval with no duration . . . the present occupies no space.”
In his book Culture Making, Andy Crouch reminds us that we don’t have to wait for the invention of a time machine to reshape the future. In fact, the concept of time travel depends on the existence of an overarching metaphysical narrative: “We find ourselves, as human beings always and everywhere have found themselves, sensing that we are in the midst of a story.”
This same idea is found in Classical epics like The Odyssey and The Aeneid that plunk readers in media res—right in the middle of things. Each one of us was born into a story that has already begun and a world that has been shaped, fashioned, affected by the meaningful acts of people we know—and don’t.
We inherited a world shaped by the past. But the future will inherit a world shaped by the present . . . shaped by you and me.
Crouch points out that in Genesis 1 man was brought into a world that predated him. However, we are made in the image of a God with “limitless, extraordinary creativity.” The great privilege and blessing of humanity is to reflect our Creator: “Culture is what we make of the world . . . Something is added in every act of making.”
We cannot change the past, but we can act in the present—what will we make of it? Will we be passive consumers and critics? Or will we be creators? To act in the present is to shape the future.
Making Something of the Present
The Ashbys have some excited news about the not-too-distance future:
We are partnering with Friendship Community Church to bring The Oaks Academy to Washington, PA.
If Andy Crouch is right, that something is added in every act of making, our prayer is that this creative partnership will add blessing upon blessing to the Southwestern corner of Pennsylvania.
We ask for your prayers, your enthusiasm and encouragement, your questions, suggestions, and partnership. We want to make something of the world—and we want to do it together. Look for more info in the coming months!