Change can come so quickly. Yesterday’s stock market was roiled yesterday by the appearance of an unknown Artificial Intelligence software entity that had been created by China. Named “Deep Seek,” this open-sourced option upended the run made by Nvidia over the last several months, sending that stock down 17% in a single day. It was quite a shock to the system, and every major news source was dominated by this story on Monday and Tuesday. As futurist Joel Barker noted over thirty years ago: “When the paradigm changes, everyone goes back to zero.” Everyone must reset.

Foresight is always blurry, but hindsight is amazingly clear. However, one thing changes that difference for us followers of Jesus. HE gave us FORESIGHT, which is only available through faith in Him. We sang a song this last week that notes that. “We know how the story ends!” Our postmodern culture keeps telling us that we are deluded for shaping our lives with the ancient commands of Jesus, for living for a person who was crucified 2,000 years ago. But we know that His resurrection trumps His crucifixion and every description of the future, God’s plan, and His justice is that we have FORESIGHT into the future. Jesus told His disciples about that future, and we have eyewitness accounts of those warnings and descriptions.

Imagine that Warren Buffett had mathematical insight into the stock market today. (Many believe he does!) If we followed that insight that everyone else ignored and the markets performed just as he warned, our friends would be shocked when we survived a market crisis that wiped them out. But we would calmly respond, “We knew it was coming–and you could have known it too if you were paying attention.” Our friends might call it “luck.” We might call it “predictable.”

“We know how the story ends,” precisely because Jesus warned us that the world will change in an instant. Mockers will be caught off guard by his return. The intelligentsia who scoff and roll their eyes when we talk about our trust in Christ will suddenly feel like fools. For all of us who trusted Christ and followed His lead, we will find a strange mixture in our hearts one day: we will be relieved that He fulfilled His promise to us, but we will also grieve for those who refused to listen. We’ll feel the weight of Jesus’ heart when He looked out over Jerusalem just before the crucifixion:

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How I longed to gather you to myself as a hen gathers her chicks, but you wouldn’t have it.

The world can change in an instant. One day, that instant will be the difference between TIME and ETERNITY.