Why do we so often long to return to the past?
Ezra 3:11-13 And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
Little Brain Thots:
Many of us have cherished moments from our past forever engrained into our memories. (I remember one particular family vacation as a child at Earock Lake... the warmth of the sun on my back and my toes digging into the cool sand... ahhh, not a care in the world...)
Isn't it funny... at any moment, a song on the radio or the whiff of freshly baked bread can unlock the time-machine of our memories and transport us to a time or place where we felt safe, content, or happy. Yet, I find that even these memories, as wonderful as they are, will hold me prisoner if I allow myself to longingly look back, and then to grumble under my present lot. This loss of focus WILL rob me of my joy today if I fail to see wonderful memories for what they are... temporal examples; signposts of the eternal happiness, peace, and joy which awaits all of us who continuously set our eyes upward...
2 Corinthians 5:5-8. (The Message) The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less. That's why we live with such good cheer... It's what we trust in but don't yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we'll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.
Big Brain Thots:
"He did not die to make this life easy for us or prosperous. He died to remove every obstacle to our everlasting joy in making much of Him. And He calls us to follow Him in his sufferings, because this life of joyful sufferings for Jesus sake shows that He is more valuable than all the earthly rewards that the world lives for." John Piper
"If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." CS Lewis
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