Rose Colored Yesterdays
Our minds play tricks on us.
Psychologists call it rosy retrospection.
It is the way we remember the past more fondly than it really was.
Vacations seem effortless when we look back.
We forget the car rides that dragged on forever, the arguments, the exhaustion.
We remember only the sunsets, the fun, and the laughter.
The same thing happens with history.
We picture simpler times. We see Mayberry.
We imagine quiet neighborhoods, wholesome families, and the good ‘ole days.
But the past was never as clean as memory makes it.
Polio left children in wheelchairs.
Diseases like measles, whooping cough, and tuberculosis still claimed many lives.
Whole communities lived without running water or electricity.
Racial injustice was enforced by law.
And the Cold War spread a shadow of fear across the globe.
Every season carries its burdens.
Every generation wrestles its storms.
And yet not everything has moved forward.
Our nation has grown more restless and more divided.
We have wandered from the very principles that once gave us strength.
We have drifted from God.
The answer is not to chase a memory.
And it is not to assume progress has fixed us.
The call is to live now.
To see today for what it is, both broken and beautiful.
To hold fast to truth.
To use what God has placed in our hands for His work.
And look at what He has placed in our hands.
Tools that would have confounded past generations.
Technology that can carry the gospel to the far corners of the earth in an instant.
Resources that missionaries of yesterday could only dream of.
What will you do with the gifts and opportunities that God has given you?
God created you for today. He placed you in this moment for a purpose.
When I stop chasing the past, I start living in the purpose God has for me.
We are called for such a time as this.
Subscribe:
One thought, every weekday morning, straight to your inbox for free.
So grateful when friends share First Light. Every share helps the message reach someone who might need it today.
#FirstLightwithNate #Faith #Perspective #Gratitude