Recently, I decided to take a trip down memory lane. 

That trip started out as just an evening, but quickly turned into the evenings of a better part of a week playing the video game system I had as a child: the Super Nintendo. Amazingly, despite being over two decades old, the old girl still works like a dream, and as at it turns out, so do I. It took no time at all for me to get right back in the swing of things, as muscle memory and reflexes knocked whatever rust existed off my ability to play Super Mario and Mario Kart and Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball and Mortal Kombat. Some games, I was still good at, while others weren't quite as successful (like the stupid Zelda game that I can't even beat with walk-throughs and tips from the internet). But one game more than any other felt like home: Super Punch-Out.

It's hard to explain what I love about Super Punch-Out. It's just a simple boxing game filled with racial stereotypes, but for whatever reason, from the moment I first played it, it was my favorite game. As a kid, I rented it from the video store (remember those?) a dozen times before I actually purchased it, but soon after I bought it, I was the absolute master at it. It quickly became not a matter of defeating each boxer, as HOW QUICKLY each enemy could be dispatched, and for years, I could play basically with my eyes closed and my hands tied around my back. And sure enough, as I put the cartridge in and fired up the Super Nintendo a couple weeks ago, the decade since I'd played it melted away, and I was every bit as good at it as I used to be.

Simply put, I have invested so much time into playing Super Punch-Out in my past that it doesn't matter when I play it in my future: I will always be awesome.

***

None of us know what the future holds.

That, more than anything else, makes part of a conversation that Jesus had with Pontius Pilate so amazing. As Jesus stared down His own impending execution, He told the Roman Governor that His kingdom was 'not from this world,' and He could prove it:

If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. (John 18:36, ESV)

Now, on this side of history, the fact that Jesus' disciples didn't fight to keep Him from being arrested or to set Him free doesn't sound all that impressive. After all, He needed to be arrested so that way He'd be executed for our sins, which, in turn, allowed for His resurrection. Why fight that?

The reason, of course, is on the side of history His disciples were on when Jesus spoke to Pilate, none of that was apparent. Sure, Jesus had shared this with them in ways both cryptic and straightforward, but each time, His followers argued with Him and misunderstood. They didn't have a clue what was going to happen, and it even took a fair bit of time for them after it actually HAD happened for them to wrap their heads around it. For all the disciples knew, this was the end; their following of Jesus was all for naught, as He was simply another notch on the belt of the Roman war machine.

And yet, they stayed true to Jesus' teachings.

Ok, so Peter needed a little bit of help. But for the rest of them, even as they faced down the end of their rabbi and friend, they stuck to His teachings. They didn't fight; they didn't use the weapons of the kingdoms Jesus had spent His ministry critiquing. They had no idea that it would end in victory; quite the opposite, in fact. But despite being ignorant of the future, they knew that what Jesus wanted was their faithfulness to the beautiful picture of a peaceful, new world that He had taught would occur when God's will was done on earth as it is in heaven. They didn't know what the future held, but they stuck by what Jesus taught.

Simply put, Jesus was able to brag on His followers with His amazing statement that proved His kingdom was unlike any other: His disciples were different, even when they had no idea what difference that could possibly make. 

***

You are in control of today.

You can't change what you did in your past, and there are no promises as to what your future might look like. But today? Today, you can choose to say and do and be whatever your heart desires.

Most of the time, we lose sight of that. We get trapped in the rhythms of life, of work and school and our kids' activities and whatever's on the DVR or whatever we're binge-watching on Netflix. We go through life doing whatever it is we think we're supposed to, we go to bed, and the next morning we do it all over again (after hitting the snooze button a time or four, of course). And we forget: this is all in our control.

Not everything, of course. There's much that simply happens to us, but even then, it's our choice how we respond to those things. And that's why, even if the future isn't promised to us, we should always be working towards a better tomorrow. That's, I think, what Jesus had in mind when He said during His famous Sermon on the Mount that where our treasure is, our hearts will be also. The things we choose to invest in - what we do with the time and opportunities and circumstances we're dealt in life - will change what our future selves will be like. 

That explains why Jesus could brag about His followers during His trial to Pilate. They had no idea what would happen to Jesus or that He would ultimately have victory in the resurrection, but they knew that what they invested in would change their hearts. And they had chosen to invest in the teachings of Jesus, no matter the cost.

And that explains why I probably shouldn't be proud of how good I am at Super Punch-Out on this side of my 30th birthday. It's a reflection of the hours - which, when added up, become days and weeks and months - I spent mastering a racially insensitive game about boxing. That's where I invested a huge portion of the 'treasure' of my time, and that's still reflected in my heart (not to mention my reflexes and muscle memory) today.

This all adds up to one, simple question: where do you want your heart to be in your not-promised future? What do you want the hearts of your children and your marriage and your family and your friends to be? What do you want to still be doing decades down the road? The choices you make right here and right now will determine that.

That doesn't mean everything will work out; in fact, if the earliest followers of Jesus are any indication, sometimes we choose what's best today despite no promise of anything 'working.' But it does mean that what you spend your time, energy and effort on will bear fruit. What you reap WILL be what you sow; where you put your treasure WILL guide the direction of your heart. While you can't change the past and you aren't promised the future, you have treasure today, and what you choose to do with it will determine who you are for whatever time you have on this earth.

Simply put, it's time to choose well.