Being Post “Post”

(Originally published March 9, 2012) I am embarking on a new class on Monday, Pre-modern, Modern, and Post-Modern Philosophy. It is my last class in my Master's program at NNU. I am excited, about the difficult things I will be reading and wrestling with. I am excited to move on with the next chapter of life. I have been looking at the name of the class and realizing that I don't like the term "post", as it relates to being beyond or after something. Post points in the wrong direction. It implys that the best has already occured, leaving us with bleak times ahead.

In the formation of this line of thought, I have been post many things: post-modern, post-racial, post-church, post-, post-, post-. All of this was incomplete thoughts pointing to the reality that I was not able to articulate, because I had believed that the previous was the best. I had to learn the painful lessons of the previous to be ready for becoming "Pre-".

In listening to the stories of the past, and seeing myself in the travail of my ancestors, I am ready to turn my eyes to tomorrow. Therefore I am pre-tomorrow. In tasting the struggle of prejudice, I must become pre-justice. In hearing how much my Lord spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, I am pre-Kingdom. I repent of the post, and embrace the pre.

"Turn to the Pre-," John the Baptist would say (Mt 3). He initiated the transition from Post to Pre. When he was put in jail, Jesus picked up his cry, "Turn to the Pre-" (Mk 1). When Jesus ascended into Heaven, the apostles picked up the cry, "Turn to the Pre-" (Ac 2).

I am not encouraging an elitistic position of anti-past, or even anti-present, any more than Jesus. He was not post-Jewish or Post-Temple, nor was he anti-Rome or anti-israel. On the contrary, we can most honor the past by setting our hearts toward tomorrow. We can best change today, fueled with the reality that the "Kingdom of Heaven IS near.

Pre-Kingdom minds know all to well the pain of the past. Pre-Kingdom hearts know all to well the struggle of today. Pre-Kingdom souls are fueled by the reality that tomorrow I already am free. Pre-Kingdom strength praises God that I have new body that won't grow tired, or fail.

When I see the post, I cry because of what I have, or have lost. When I see the pre, I cry because of the unspeakable joy found in the Kingdom that is near.

God bless you. Come quickly Lord Jesus.