US Senate advances “Big Beautiful Bill”

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard observed, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” For example, the United States Senate voted today to advance the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” The House will vote on the amended legislation as soon as tomorrow, with the goal of having a bill for President Trump’s signature by July 4. 

Until that final version hits the President’s desk, speculation will continue regarding what the bill will contain and how it will impact the country. Even then, though, that impact—for better or worse—will continue to remain speculative for quite some time. And the reason is simple: the consequences of actions taken by Congress and the president this week will be “lived forwards” for years but will only be “understood backwards.”

Other examples in the news illustrate that truth as well:

• Today is “Bobby Bonilla Day.” That’s because the New York Mets pay him $1.19 every July 1, as they have since 2011 and will through 2035. The team chose to do this in the year 2000 rather than pay Bonilla a $5.9 million buyout at the time. In total, the team will pay him nearly $30 million in deferred payments.
• A boater and a nurse saved three children caught in a current off a beach in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Every life these children influence will be an extension of the initiative of their rescuers.
• A gunman in Idaho started a fire Sunday afternoon, then shot at firefighters when they responded, killing two of them. Their families will grieve the deaths of these brave heroes for the rest of their lives.
• A truck driver fell asleep at the wheel Saturday afternoon, causing a multi-vehicle crash that shut down Interstate 20 east of Dallas and killed six people while injuring several others. The driver’s momentary failure will bear consequences for generations to come.
• And the Battle of Gettysburg began on this day in 1863, changing the course of the Civil War and, with it, the course of American history.

John Donne observed,

No man is an island,

Entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

His famous insight is true not just in the present but in the future, with ramifications that are relevant to each of us each day we live.

From “containment” to the Cold War

One way God redeems present faithfulness is by using it to advance his eternal kingdom in ways we cannot imagine at the time. You can think of biblical examples, as can I:

• Joseph had no idea when he arrived in Egypt that he would save his family and the Jewish nation as a result.
• Moses didn’t know when he agreed to return to Egypt that he would give the world the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic law.
• David didn’t know when he defeated Goliath that he would become the forerunner of the Messiah.
• The disciples didn’t know when they left their boats and nets to follow Jesus that they would write much of what we call the “New Testament.”
• Paul didn’t know on the Damascus Road that he would evangelize much of the Roman world and write thirteen books of the New Testament.
• Peter didn’t know when he was crucified upside down (according to early tradition) that the largest church in the world would be built over the place of his tomb.
• John didn’t know when he was exiled to Patmos that he would meet the risen Christ there and receive the book of Revelation.

The pattern holds across Christian history:

• When Augustine turned from pagan philosophies and carnal sin to faith in Christ, he did not know he would become the greatest theologian since Paul.
• When Martin Luther nailed his “Ninety-five Theses” to the door of the Wittenberg church, he did not know his actions would be instrumental in leading what history would come to call the “Protestant Reformation.”
• When William Carey agreed to go to India, he did not know he was sparking the Modern Missions Movement.
• When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became involved in the civil rights movement, he did not know that his “I Have A Dream” speech would become iconic and that his birthday would become a national holiday.

The same principle holds for evil as well, however.

• When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they unknowingly brought sin into the entire human race (cf. Romans 5:12).
• When the German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor in 1933, the world did not know that six million Jews would be massacred as a result.
• When the Allies negotiated a settlement with the Soviet Union following World War II, they did not know that their “containment” of Communism would lead to the Cold War.

“Faithfulness in the little things is a great thing”

Here’s my point: one of the most powerful motives for choosing godliness is the fact that our decisions today bear unforeseeable consequences tomorrow.

I cannot imagine that a single one of the many pastors who have fallen into moral sin and lost their ministries in recent years chose such an outcome or even imagined it could happen to them. Conversely, you and I are the product of a generational line of faithful believers who transmitted the gospel from their time to ours.

Every word I write is an extension of the faithfulness of the men who knocked on my apartment door when I was fifteen years old and invited me to ride their bus to church. Think back over the people whose influence has been most used by God in your life. How many of them had any idea at the time that their faithfulness would be so significant for you?

This is an important point in large part because it is so counter-cultural.

While Eastern worldviews often see history as cyclical and Western worldviews as linear, our existential culture views time as the chaotic present. We are here by the random coincidence of evolution and have no future we can manage or influence, or so we think. We are, therefore, actors on a stage with no script, audience, or director.

“If it feels good, do it” is more than a marketing slogan—it is a way of life.

The next time you are tempted by sin or given the opportunity for faithfulness, pause to consider that your decisions in this moment will echo in eternity. Millennia after the US Senate is forgotten and time is no more, your next act of obedience will bear timeless significance.

The great missionary Hudson Taylor noted,

“A little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in the little things is a great thing.”

Will you do a “great thing” today?