Past Glances, Better or Worse?

The older I get, the more I think about the past. Perhaps this is natural and every aging person does it. I am not sure.

When I think about the past I do not dwell on lost opportunities or mistakes, instead, I relish the memories of days gone by. After all, it is really too late to anguish over spilled milk, but the memories of a life lived are so vivid. It is almost as if I can taste that first drink of coffee, smell the woodsmoke around the campfire, feel the cold of the water as I jump into the lake, feel the burn of energy as we hammer the nails, and enjoy the companionship of pets that have been long gone.

The problem with living in the past are many.

You fail to enjoy the present.

With my family, it is ofttimes easier to remember the past because we see each other so seldom in the present. We are not connected like we were back then. When we gather, the most we seem to enjoy is how life was back then.

Take my kids, for example. Back then I saw them every day. I heard their voices all the time. Family time. School. Church. Vacations. It seemed we were always together. My memories of those times are so strong it is often hard to extricate myself from them and see my kids for who they have become today. Lives of their own. Careers. Different from the past as night as uniquely different from the day.

One of the problems of living in the past memories is that we do not allow those from the past to grow up into who they are today. There was a friend from school years that I have great memories of the times we hung out together, rode our bikes, did camp outs in the back yard – all those typical 60’s things. Then we moved into high school and times changed. We lost connection. In fact, I have not seen or heard of him these past 40 years and do not even know if he is alive. My memories are all I have left.

Past memories shade the present with colors of discontent.

We often hold up our present idea of something with the dream state of the past perfection.

Yes, it is true, a Dr. Pepper back then was so much better than today – but there’s no way I can actually compare that past with the present in taste comparison. In just the same way much of the food I would not touch back then is pure enjoyment today – except for watermelon… It will always hold a bad place in the experiment.

When we compare the present to the 20/20 vision of the past, the present will just about always lose, and that is so unfair – the present is all I have. It’s like comparing those “good ol’ days” to the present. There is no true comparison. The past can never really be relived in the present.

Past viewing shakes the hope of a better tomorrow

Urban sprawl wipes out neighborhoods. The towns of the past do not exist today and will never be reclaimed in the future. Those that live in Channelview know this better than I, and those that have fled Channelview because it is different understand it even better.

Old swimming holes do not exist. Stores of days gone by are replaced by modern monstrosities. You know, pull down paradise and put up a parking lot… It is not safe for kids to ride their bikes all over town. Laws have changed in many places and what we did out of habit is not allowed today.

• Bike helmets and other safety gear is required but just about everyone… (not me…).
• No open riding in the back of a truck – we used to sit on the tailgate and drag our feet on the roads and ride standing on the step-boards and lean out to see if we could touch tree branches.
• Carry our BB guns with us everywhere, and shoot when we feel like it.
• Seatbelts??? Really? Car seats? Never saw either until I was nearly in my teens.

Well, this list is almost endless…Freedoms of the past are controlled by laws of the present and will only tighten down in the future.

On second thought let’s just get lost in the memories of the past and forget the present!

Here’s My Thought Today

Life then is full of the glory days. The present is so questionable. Look to tomorrow, and it’s no wonder we wish for those wonder years of times that were equally difficult when lived in real-time.

Paul reached the ending, and if you study him at length, you realize his world was never “perfect”. He was ambitious to fulfill his calling, yet those times were fraught with pain and suffering. He reaches the ending and says…

I am ready to be offered up… (2 Timothy 4:6, KJV) I am ready. Everything is finished. There’s really nothing left to do. And I wonder, did he glance over his past life and examine every nook and cranny looking for the missing pieces? Perhaps. But if you look at his words in a literal context of the language, he’s telling us what’s really going on.

For I am already being poured out, and the time of my release is here.
(7) I have fought the good fight… finished the course… kept the faith.
(8) For the rest, the crown of righteousness is laid up for me,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me in that Day,
and not only to me, but also to all the ones loving His appearance.
(2 Timothy 4:6-8 LITV)

I enjoy my past, and though far from perfect, I remember the times that shaped and molded me to be the person I am today. There’s no way I look at it with regret. There is a better place for me.

A Better Time and Place

As Charles Dickens writes in “A Tale of Two Cities”…

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done;
it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

Will this be your focus?