Do you wonder, as I do, what the future might hold for this globe we live on?

I enjoy reading James Howard Kunstler, whose most recent book is called The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century.

While I don’t see the future unfolding just the way he does, I think his is a voice that needs to be taken seriously as he incorporates good insights into how North American culture has developed, what changes it will face in the coming crises and how it is likely to try to cope.

Here’s a sample from the first chapter:

“Even after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that collapsed the twin towers of the World Trade Center and sliced through the Pentagon, America is still sleepwalking into the future. We have walked out of our burning house and we are now headed off the edge of a cliff. Beyond that cliff is an abyss of economic and political disorder on a scale no one has ever seen before. I call this coming time the Long Emergency.”

Kunstler’s view of the future is one in which a society dependent on cheap fossil fuels is forced to adapt suddenly in the face of rapidly declining supplies and rapidly rising prices. He sees a world torn by “resource wars” as nations with firepower go after nations with fuel.

As a believer in “global warming,” he sees an increase in natural disasters, particularly coastal flooding, drought and disease. In the end, he sees a smaller population living a more simple, community-based lifestyle. He envisions the end of the global economy, replaced by small, local economies. His crystal ball also sees the end of suburbia, the long commute to work, the strip mall and the big house (which he calls the chipboard and vinyl McHouse).

Do you give much thought to the kind of world that our children and grandchildren will inherit? Do you see a future in which every new challenge is met with new technology and life continues on pretty much as it always has?

Or do you expect the kind of major changes that people like Kunstler see in the future of our society?

Personally, I think we’re in for a time where the foundations of our society are shaken. Maybe I’m too pessimistic, but I don’t see an easy way out of the economic collapse in America that sees over 600,000 added to the unemployment tally every month in a year when 50 cents of every dollar the government spends there must first be borrowed.

When our foundations have been thoroughly shaken, I hope that we emerge as a more humble, less selfish and more spiritually alive culture.

Times of great distress have produced those kinds of results in the past. I hope and pray, too, that many people will find the anchor of a real and living faith to help them hold steady through the shaking.

Dave King is the pastor of Silver Valley Community Church.