The Revolutionary War was erupting.   After a long siege, George Washington had managed to take Boston from the British in March 1776.   As the British evacuated Boston in 120 ships with over 11,000 people placed on board, several loyalists gathered at the rail of one of the ships and expressed confidence that they would be returning soon in triumph. A prominent Boston merchant, George Erving, turned and said solemnly, “Gentlemen, not one of you will see that place again.”   (1776, David McCullough)

This reminds me of the hope (I should call it something… for it is not really hope but a “backward glance”) that lingers in each of us (or maybe just us old folks)  for the return of the “good ol’ days.”  We call it Nostalgia.  I cannot think of a potentially more destructive and paralyzing “look.”.  And it can militate against all true biblical hope which is always focused on the future and promise….

I had a friend growing up through high school; my next door neighbor.  In order to avoid a public hearing scheduled for a drunk driving charge (mine, my friend was far too smart to get caught), we took off and for our junior summer, hitchhiked around the country.  That trip was hell for me.  For my friend, it was “heaven.”  The result…. I got saved and he became froze to the past like Hans Solo in Carbon Freezing.  25 years later, we got together and talked about our lives.  He was still frozen… Remarkably, what contrasted him from me was simply this: He looked back at that trip and said it was the high watermark of his life and he has lived ever since trying to “get it back.”  I reflected and gained insight.   The difference between him and me was the direction of our “look.”   In 1973 my life was transformed by Jesus Christ.  In “hope I was saved” and no longer was I held bondage to the past, but God gave me the forward look.  My friend,  still with the “backward glance,”  continues to try and “get it back.”

The truth is that nothing in this earth can finally satisfy us.  Much can make us content for a time, but nothing can fill us to the brim.  Not the past especially.  As Mark Twain spoke, “It’s characteristically human to remember a lot of things that never happened.”  and so my friend.  (Thanks Cornelius Platinga Jr.)

Let us take to heart the words of Erving:  Gentlemen, not one of your will ever see that place again…  The British never returned to Boston.  Neither can we return to the past, our hope is eternal and in that hope, we are changed and inflicted with Joy!  “Forgetting the past and reaching forward to the future and what lies ahead.”  Paul

As J.R.R. Tolkien put it…. Our final joy lies “beyond the walls of the world,”

(some will “take exception” to this. There are good memories, I know.  And there are always exceptions.  God’s faithfulness in our past is a powerful foundation and affirmation of His future Grace in our lives. My goal is to disclose the hopeless type of “backward glance” that leads to depression, guilt, resentment and anger in the present.   I will make a post about “taking exception” later, but you will have to wait. )