Here is a little something that came to me in my email that I thought might interest a few of you. I am definitely one of those people who is "stuck in the past". I'm always thinking "how it used to be" when I was thin, when I was single, when I was working, and on and on. So this article hit me right where it needed to..in the heart and mind. I hope it will help one of you get "unstuck" if you are there with me. 
There's a Reason By:
Phil Tuttle,
President of Walk Thru the Bible
"There's a reason a car's windshield is way bigger than its rearview mirror."That's how my Dad used to make the point that we ought to spend much more time looking forward than backward. The Apostle Paul shared the same wisdom centuries earlier in Philippians 3:13-14:"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
It sounds so easy when we read it in the Bible, but it's way more difficult to think that way in real life.In fact, it seems to me there's an epidemic sweeping our country right now of people getting stuck in the past. The Center for Disease Control here in Atlanta hasn't officially sounded the alarm yet, but spending a few minutes reading your Facebook News Feed will confirm the reality of just how many people are spending huge amounts of time and emotional energy wishing for the good old days.
For some, it's the ever-accelerating rate of technological change that can make anyone over 40 feel obsolete. For others, it's our constantly shifting culture, complete with new definitions of family and marriage. Still others panic at the thought of restructuring our tax code or healthcare system.While these issues and the tensions they create are real, the answer isn't to worship the past.
One of our instructors, Mark Wheeler, titled a recent blog "The Idolatry of Nostalgia" and that phrase has burrowed its way into my brain. I've had to acknowledge my growing tendency to long for how things used to be–even if it requires me to rewrite history by remembering only what was good about the past."
There's a Reason By:
Phil Tuttle,
President of Walk Thru the Bible
"There's a reason a car's windshield is way bigger than its rearview mirror."That's how my Dad used to make the point that we ought to spend much more time looking forward than backward. The Apostle Paul shared the same wisdom centuries earlier in Philippians 3:13-14:"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
It sounds so easy when we read it in the Bible, but it's way more difficult to think that way in real life.In fact, it seems to me there's an epidemic sweeping our country right now of people getting stuck in the past. The Center for Disease Control here in Atlanta hasn't officially sounded the alarm yet, but spending a few minutes reading your Facebook News Feed will confirm the reality of just how many people are spending huge amounts of time and emotional energy wishing for the good old days.
For some, it's the ever-accelerating rate of technological change that can make anyone over 40 feel obsolete. For others, it's our constantly shifting culture, complete with new definitions of family and marriage. Still others panic at the thought of restructuring our tax code or healthcare system.While these issues and the tensions they create are real, the answer isn't to worship the past.
One of our instructors, Mark Wheeler, titled a recent blog "The Idolatry of Nostalgia" and that phrase has burrowed its way into my brain. I've had to acknowledge my growing tendency to long for how things used to be–even if it requires me to rewrite history by remembering only what was good about the past."
