The "Good" Old Days??

Ecclesiastes 3:1

“There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth…”

During the beginning of the year I began sharing some thoughts around change. As we enter the season of Lent I'd like to pick up and continue challenging us around the idea of change, what it means, how to do it, how to welcome it and how to benefit from it.

I think we’ve established that the wind of change is all around us. As the scripture references above, there is a season for all things and those seasons (as seasons do) have a tendency to change. In fact, God is a moving God…the Spirit doesn’t sit stagnant but “moves.” Therefore, I’ve suggested we not only cope with change but learn to embrace it.

Since this world is a movement world and God is a God of motion and progress…always working, always moving, I believe we should be spiritually attuned to the where God is moving. We NOT should pray “God bless what I am doing,” but rather, “God let me be a part of what you are blessing!”

In order to be attuned and sensitive to the movement of Spirit in life and our world, I believe we must have an appropriate relationship with the Past, Present and Future. In fact the ancient Asian philosophy of the Tao speaks to this. Lao Tzu is documented as saying:

“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the moment.

So, for this post allow me to offer some sentiments around our relationship with the past.

1.    We Shouldn’t Romanticize the Past. We often have the tendency to wax eloquent about the “good ole days,” but if we were honest it wasn’t all that good. It was what it was. Yes, youth has its advantages and it’s easy to look back at the physical body we once had and pine for days past (but if we were honest we might admit that we could do a better job of taking care of the one we currently have). However, the wisdom we’ve gained in the meantime is much too valuable to lose. In the words of an African American Spiritual, I wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now. 

2.    We Shouldn’t Demonize the Past. We don’t romanticize the past but let’s be careful not to demonize it either. We are who we are today because of what we experienced yesterday. We should avoid the ‘woulda-coulda-shouldas’ while reliving past mistakes and regretting decisions not made. It was it was and it is what it is! Though the past may have offered some rough times, we mustn’t waste our pain, rather we must cherish the rich lessons the past helped to teach.

3.    We Must Use the Past to Ask, Now What? Finally, it’s my experience that we have to search for ways in which the lessons of the past can be used today and into our next chapter. They may not be easily visible, but the lessons of the past can serve us as we live the present and look to the future. Life is our greatest teacher; we simply have to be willing to receive the message.

So, as we look toward Lent and how we might allow the gospel story to transform us in new and exciting ways, I encourage you to keep these ideas in mind as we embrace the wind of the Spirit and the change it brings!

Love ya!

Pastor Ray