FROM THE PULPIT: IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS?

In the 70's, nostalgia for the 50's was quite the rage. TV shows such as "Happy Days," and "Lavern and Shirley" dominated the ratings, and "doo-wop" music made a comeback. Nowadays, the 70's seem to be in style, with classic rock stations among the most popular on the radio, and bell bottoms once again being worn.

We recently received our first snowfall of the winter. Anytime the snow flies, conversation turns to how much we used to get. I remember the many snowy days we had in West-Central Missouri as I was growing up, when six-foot drifts were not uncommon, which forced us to abandon the county roads and cut across frozen fields on our way to church. Or the cold winters, when we could ice skate in December.

We enjoy thinking back on the "good old days. The old times are especially fond in our memories during times of stress, chaos, or uncertainty (i.e., Presidential Election 2000!).

"Say not, Why were the former days better than these?' For it is not from wisdom that you ask this?" (Ecclesiastics V10) Why is this so?

For one thing, we tend to forget the negative aspects of the good old days. Nobody in the 70's really wanted to go back to the lifestyles of the 50's, or the crew cuts! Nobody now seriously misses the discos and leisure suits of the 70's!

But more than that, living in the past renders us unable to appreciate the present. A stroll down Memory Lane is one thing, but a constant longing for different days is really a mental escape from our problems, intellectual laziness.

When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3), He revealed Himself by name as "I am who I am," or simply "I am." God is eternal, not bound by time. By being eternal, however, God is present in emery time. I AM is God now. The past cannot be received. It is recorded, commended or forgiven. The future is at best uncertain. But "now" is ours for the living, ours for savoring, ours to be either positive or negative.

"Now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2) God's grace is offered to us all now. Jesus invites us to trust Rim now. ("Come for everything is now ready." Luke 14:17) What we do now in large part determines whether our future will be blessed or not. "Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." (Ecclesiastics 6:8)

Let us live "now," in the present. Let us entrust ourselves to God now. For when our nows are taken away, at the moment of our deaths, if we have lived for God, we will continue to live in Him eternally, in joy forever.

"I am with you always (even now!), even until the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)