Stuck in the Past

Now that I have two boys, it excites me that I can eventually introduce them to some of my favorite past times.

ThunderCats. Transformers. Pseudo motorized bike by way of Pepsi can jammed on the back tire. Atari. Boston Baked Beans.

And, in doing so, I’m automatically transported to a more simpler time, to a more care free period in my life. I’m redirected to a period where taxes and death weren’t real, where all of my problems were solved by a bowl of Fruit Pebbles, and where the only stress in my life was attempting to jump over a trio of alligators across a swamp in Pitfall.

It’s a period I fantasize about often. And, with all the 80s hype resurfacing in our current culture, I drool over joysticks and Voltron even more.

“Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” – Exodus 14:12

The unfortunate reality, however, in reminiscing about our past, is some of us have a tendency to stay there. Some of us have an unhealthy fixation of reverting to the ways of yesterday. Some of us have an addictive obsession with how things were that we sometimes neglect our current responsibilities.

The early Israelites were on the verge of tasting their freedom. But, in the midst of their struggle to get there, they wailed at Moses and protested their desire to go back to the comforts of Egyptian slavery. Because of their current challenges, the Israelites wanted nothing to do with their impending deliverance.

How about you? What are some past habits, tendencies, favorite past times that seemingly prevent you from moving forward?

Let’s talk.