If you're anything like me, sometimes you like to just sit back and think about "the good ol' days." About those times when life was so much simpler. Those times when your responsibility-load was low, Chick-fil-A gave student discounts, your favorite NFL team hadn't just gotten smashed by 28 points, and the pretty girl who sits in front of you in class hadn't called you a hippo-eyed dweeb yet.
Ah, those were the days.
There is a potential danger in spending too much time reminiscing like this, however. What can end up happening is that we focus so much on the past that we become hesitant to move into the future. We become stuck in days gone by and are unprepared for the day we're in right now. We become like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite--constantly thinking about our glory days on the high school football team and never moving forward in creating a dynamic present or future.
I think that the God of the Bible is a forward-moving God. This is not to say that God has no interest in the past. Christianity is a faith drawn from history. Often in Scripture, God's people recall how God has acted in the past (e.g., Deut. 1-3; Ps. 105). The purpose of this, however, is so that they can better understand how God is leading them into their future. It's not just so that they can all lay around and say, "Hey man, remember how we defeated Og king of Bashan? Yeah....that was pretty sweet." God reminds them of such things so that they can carry on with the work he has for them to do.
Sometimes God needs to give his people a little kick in the pants to get them moving. We see it in the account of the Transfiguration, where Moses and Elijah appear on a mountain with Jesus while Peter, James, and John watch. When Moses and Elijah are getting ready to leave, Peter says, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." It's as though Peter is so impressed with that moment in time that he just doesn't want to let it go. He wants to hold on to it for a while. Instead of going back down the mountain with Jesus so that he can continue his ministry, he wants to pitch camp on the mountain. But that's not what God has planned for Peter. He can't stay on the mountain. He needs to go with Jesus to Jerusalem. He needs to see the resurrected Christ. He needs to speak at Pentecost and witness to Cornelius.
Peter's gotta get off that mountain.
It's a similar situation when we read about the Israelites' journey through the wilderness on their way to the promised land. Over and over again, the Israelites meet some new obstacle and they start to complain, wishing they were back in Egypt. When they start running low on food, they grumble, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death" (Ex. 16:3). Later on, when they're tired of nothing but manna, they say, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!" (Num. 11:4).
These are just a couple examples; there are other times where the wandering Israelites freak out and start reminiscing about "how good they had it in Egypt." Last week the preacher at my church said that the Israelites have "an eternal case of nostalgia." They get stuck in their remembrances of the past to that point that they want to turn away from where God is taking them and go back to Egypt. The crazy thing is that they're days in Egypt weren't even very good! They were slaves! And yet, the comfort of what they know seems more appealing than the discomfort of their future, which they feel unsure about. And yet, God is calling them forward. They can't go back to Egypt. God has bigger plans for them than that.
Since moving to Cincinnati last month, I have caught myself being like the Israelites a lot. I sit around and think about how great things used to be even just six months ago. It was so nice to have money for Taco Bell and to have a TV to watch football on and to have a roommate to joke around with. I even think longingly of my college's dining hall, where I could just walk down the hill to eat a meal prepared for me. (I forget, however, that when I was there I frequently complained about how the portions weren't big enough or how baked potato bar was the biggest ripoff in the world.) The result is that I end up being grumpy and dissatisfied with where I am, and I might lose sight of how God is pushing me forward into something even better.
Are you ever like that? Do you often look so intently at what you miss from your past that you close yourself off to what God might have planned for your present and future? Or maybe you're like Peter, and you want to put up a tent around some significant spiritual experience while you miss the God who is right in front of you?
God is moving us forward. Let's join him for the ride.
Tonight I watched the original King Kong from 1933, and really liked it, actually. The love interest of the movie is between an actress and a sailor. For the first part of the movie, the sailor is a total jerk to the actress. All he does is talk about how women get in the way, and he frequently mentions how she shouldn't be on the ship. This goes all the way up to the point when he all of a sudden tells the actress that he loves her. And even though he has been horrible to her all the way up to the point, she kisses him. The lesson learned? It was really easy to get women to like you in the 30's. I guess I was just born 80 years too soon.
It also helps a lot if you rescue her from a 50-foot ape.
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