Heart Burn

Image Created by Horrid Bruce.

Nostalgia can be Dangerous

The smells of wood smoke and coffee permeate the air of our house. Looking out the window, I see a cold fall day. The trees have lost their leaves, the sky is gray, and a light drizzle falls to the ground. Along with these sensory inputs, my mind is awash with images of my dreams throughout the night, dreams of days gone by. I close my eyes and suddenly I am back in Oregon in the middle of the mountains pouring myself a cup of coffee in the living room of the house my wife and I built. Nostalgia sets in and I long for the freedom of living in the middle of nowhere with no one around and nothing to do but live. My eyes open and I am once again standing in my kitchen in somewhere Indiana. Reality floods in on me. Responsibilities loom overhead like the clouds of the sky. There is so much to do everyday here; and yet such a lack of motivation or enthusiasm at times. Depression threatens but then a realization hits me upside the head like a V8 Commercial...Jesus is my motivation. He is the provider of all things for us: financial, educational, spiritual. The devil would have no greater satisfaction than to see every Follower-of-Christ overwhelmed with the responsibilities and worries of life in this world. However, we have victory in Jesus from worry. This does not mean that life is perfect and easy when following Christ; it simply means that life is an adventure both in easy times and hard times.

I long for the time when my wife and I thought we were free to live our own way in Oregon. Unfortunately, by longing for the past I cannot move forward. As long as my mind wishes I was back there it cannot see the great things that lie ahead here where God has brought us to now. God is moving and when we long for the past we get stuck there and we are unable to move forward with Him. Free will is the greatest gift God gave to us and it is the greatest gift we can give back to Him. We can chose to cling to former times that we perceive to be better than where we are now and ignore where God wants to take us. Or we can commemorate the past in our hearts by learning from it and then chose to live for the future. We can chose to follow Christ where ever he leads. If we chose to stay in the past we are destined to miss the future. I realize that I cannot experience now if I am stuck on then.